Efficacy of radiofrequency ablation therapy compared to surgical resection in 164 patients in Japan with single hepatocellular carcinoma smaller than 3 cm, along with report of complications.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Radiofrequency ablation therapy (RFA) has become widely used against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), mainly because of its ease of use, lower level of invasiveness, and high level of effectiveness. To compare the efficacy and safety of RFA with surgery, we retrospectively investigated relevant patient clinical data.

METHODOLOGY: The patients with a single HCC (3 cm > or =, Child-Pugh A or B) who were treated with RFA (RFA-group: n=105) or surgery (Surgery-group: n=59) from January 2000 to June 2007 were enrolled.

RESULTS: The ratio of patients classified as Child-Pugh B was greater in RFA-group (24.8% vs. 8.5%, P=0.011), though the sizes of the tumors were not significantly different. There were no significant differences for survival rates or disease free survival rates after 3- and 5-years (RFA-group vs. Surgery-group; survival: 87.8 and 59.3% vs. 91.4 and 59.4%, disease free survival: 58.7 and 24.6% vs. 64.3 and 22.4%, respectively). As for complications, in RFA-group there was no severe complication while there was 1 case of postoperative hepatic failure death and 2 with a postoperative abscess in Surgery-group.

CONCLUSIONS: In the present study, patients with a single HCC smaller than 3cm who underwent RFA had a lower frequency of severe complications, thus the efficacy of RFA was thought to be equal to a surgical procedure.