Abstract: | Objective To analyse the effect of time interval on the outcome of microwave ablation (MWA)treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). Methods A retrospective analysis of recurrent 71 HCC patients after receiving TACE and MWA at the 3rd People’s Hospital of Kunming from February 2016 to December 2018; with 32 patients received sequential MWA treatment within 4 weeks after TACE (sequential Treatment group), and 39 patients received delayed MWA treatment (delayed Treatment group) 4 weeks after the completion of TACE, the overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) of two groups were observed. Survival curve was plotted using Kaplan-Meier, the multiple Cox proportional hazard regression was used to analyze prognostic factors, compare adverse reactions between the two groups. Results The median OS of the sequential group and the delayed group were 35.3 months and 29.1 months, respectively. PFS in the sequential group was 27 months, and 13.8 months in the delayed group. The sequential group had better overall survival OS (HR, 0.601; 95%CI, 0.378-0.796; P = 0.037) and longer PFS (HR, 0.779; 95%CI, 0.415-0.821; P = 0.004). Maximum tumor diameter, number of tumors, and time interval are factors that affect OS and PFS. Child-Pugh classification is a factor that affects OS but does not affect PFS. Conclusion TACE plus sequential MWA within 4 weeks was more effective for treatment HCC than delayed MWA, and does not increase adverse reactions. |