Ablation for malignant liver tumor using high-intensity focused ultrasound and radio-frequency: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Primary liver cancer is a major health issue, so finding the most effective treatment is vital.

OBJECTIVE: The present meta-analysis compares high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) to radiofrequency (RF) ablation for primary liver cancer treatment.

METHODS: PubMed, MEDLINE, CNKI, VIP, and Wanfang were used to search for English and Chinese papers. After carefully confirming data completeness and applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, RevMan 5.3 was used to evaluate the included literature. Data analysis utilized a fixed-effects model for heterogeneity between 0.1 and 0.5.

RESULTS: The meta-analysis included 304 patients: 119 had HIFU and 185 RF ablation. For primary liver cancer, HIFU and RF ablation were equally efficacious (odds ratio 1.02, 95% confidence interval [0.54, 1.92]). Overall survival, disease-free survival, and complications at 1, 2, and 3 years were not significantly different (odds ratio 0.72, 95% confidence range [0.04, 12.79], P= 0.82).

CONCLUSION: The meta-analysis shows no significant difference in efficacy, long-term survival rates, or complication rates between HIFU and RF ablation for primary liver cancer, but more large-scale, high-quality randomized clinical trials are needed to prove their equivalence. Both therapy strategies seem promising, but additional information is needed to determine their respective merits.