Key clinical point: Compared with radiofrequency ablation (RFA), microwave ablation ( MWA) effectuates better 1- and 2-year disease-free survival (DFS) along with a lower risk of major complications in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Main finding: Although both ablation therapies led to a similar 2-year overall survival ( P = .573), MWA achieved better 1-year DFS (79.7% vs 60.7%; P = .035) and 2-year DFS (72.5% vs 45.4%; P = .02) rates than RFA. Concurrently, MWA showed a lower rate of major complications than RFA (14% vs 29%; P = .043).
Study details: Findings are from a retrospective cohort study involving 150 patients with HCC, including treatment-naïve and recurrent HCC, who were treated with either RFA (n=100) or MWA (n=50).
Disclosures: The study was sponsored by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education. No conflict of interests was reported by the authors.
Source: Lee SK et al. J Clin Med. 2022 Jan 7. doi: 10.3390/jcm11020302 .