A total of 129 patients who underwent TACE between August 2008 and February 2011 were enrolled. We compared HCC patients who underwent TACE with DC bead? (n = 60) to controls who received cTACE (n = 69). The primary end points were treatment response and treatment-related adverse events. The secondary end point was time to progression.
The treatment response in the DC bead? group was significantly higher than that of the cTACE group (p <0.001). The time to progression was significantly better in the DC bead? group than in the cTACE group (11.7 and 7.6 months, respectively, p = 0.018). Subgroup analysis showed that in intermediate-stage HCC, DC bead? treatment resulted in a significantly better treatment response and longer time to progression than cTACE (p <0.001 and 0.038, respectively). However, there was no statistically significant difference in liver toxicity between the DC bead? and cTACE group (p >0.05).
TACE with DC bead? showed better treatment response and delayed tumor progression compared with cTACE. There was no significant difference in hepatic treatment-related toxicities. DC bead? TACE thus appears to be a feasible and promising approach to the treatment of HCC.