Therapeutic comparison between radiofrequency ablation and percutaneous ethanol injection in treatment of primary liver cancer: a meta-analysis

ObjectiveTo compare the efficacy of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) versus percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) in the treatment of primary liver cancer(PLC). MethodsA search of PubMed, EMBASE, CKNI, VIP, and Wanfang Data identified all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) related to therapeutic comparison between RFA and PEI in patients with PLC. Quality of each study was assessed, meta-analysis was performed with Review Manager 5.0 software, and the results were analyzed with fixed effect model and random effect model. ResultsSeven RCTs were included in this study. The results of meta-analysis indicated that, compared with the PEI group, the RFA group had a significantly higher tumor necrosis rate (P=0.008, OR=2.66, 95％CI: 1.29-5.48). The 1-, 2-, and 3-year survival rates and 1- and 3-year tumor-free survival rates of the RFA group were significantly higher than those of the PEI group (P＜005). The RFA group had significantly lower 1-, 2-, and 3-year local recurrence rates in comparison with the PEI group (P＜005). There was no significant difference in 2-year tumor-free survival rate between the two groups (P=0.06). ConclusionThe efficacy of RFA is superior to that of PEI, which is of clinical significance to guide the selection of methods for PLC treatment