ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal and Hepatic Pharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1657794
Comparative Efficacy of Postoperative Adjuvant Transcatheter Arterial Chemoembolization and Hepatic Artery Infusion Chemotherapy in Patients with BCLC Stage 0-B Hepatocellular Carcinoma at High Risk of Recurrence Following Radical Resection
Provisionally accepted
- 1Yongchuan Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
- 2The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
- 3Chongqing Western Hospital, Chongqing, China
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Aim: This study aims to compare the efficacy of post-operative transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (PA-TACE) and post-operative hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy (PA-HAIC) in patients with BCLC Stage 0-B Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) at high risk of recurrence following radical resection. Methods: This study retrospectively evaluated HCC patients who underwent radical liver resection (LR) at two clinical centers between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2024. The recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were compared among three groups: those who received LR alone, PA-TACE, and PA-HAIC. Propensity score matching (PSM) was applied to minimize inter-group differences and further validate the findings. Results: A total of 609 patients with high-risk recurrence following radical resection of HCC were included in this study. After PSM, both PA-TACE and PA-HAIC significantly improved median RFS (mRFS) and median OS (mOS) compared with LR alone (mRFS for the LR, PA-TACE, and PA-HAIC groups was 16.5 months, 39.0 months, and 46.0 months, respectively; mOS was 54.0 months, 68.0 months, and not reached for PA-HAIC). Furthermore, patients treated with PA-HAIC achieved superior mRFS as well as higher 1-year, 2-year, and 4-year RFS rates compared with those treated with PA-TACE. Similarly, PA-HAIC was associated with a significantly longer mOS and a higher 4-year OS rate than PA-TACE. In the construction of the RFS nomogram, the C-indexes for the training and validation cohorts were 0.802 and 0.799, respectively, demonstrating good predictive ability. Conclusion: In HCC patients with high-risk recurrence following radical resection, PA-HAIC significantly improves RFS compared to PA-TACE, but only in patients with MVI, tumor diameter ≥5 cm, or multiple tumors.
Keywords: Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Radical resection, Postoperative adjuvant, Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, Hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy
Received: 01 Jul 2025; Accepted: 04 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Feng, Ao, Liu, Yuan, Shi and Tang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Chengjia Tang, Yongchuan Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
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