Combination Therapy Prolongs Life Of Patients With Liver Cancer

April 10, 2008 9:45 a.m. EST

Jinan, China (AHN) - According to a study published Tuesday, advanced liver cancer patients receiving a combination of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) and radiofrequency thermal ablation (RFA) may liver longer.

The findings offer a breakthrough for liver cancer treatment which is often diagnosed in mid to late stages.

Chinese researchers at Shandong University tested the possibility of long term benefits when treating patients with hepatocellular carcinoma larger than three centimeters with combination of TACE and RFA.

Lead researcher, Bao-Quan Cheng from the Qilu Hospital and Shandong University School of Medicine and his team studied 291 patients in China from January 2001 to May 2004. Some were randomly assigned to combined treatment (96 patients), TACE alone (95 patients), or RFA alone (100 patients).

The follow-up showed that 69 percent of those in the combined group had died, compared to 84 percent in each group that received only one of the therapies.

Median (midpoint) survival times were 24 months in the TACE group, 22 months in the RFA group, and 37 months in TACE-RFA group.

The study showed survival rates in the TACE-RFA group were significantly better than in the TACE or RFA group and that the lower rate of death in the combination therapy group was the result of fewer deaths due to tumor progression

The findings were published in the April 9 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association.