A Comparison of the Outcomes of Transarterial Chemoembolization and Transarterial Radioembolization in the Management of Neuroendocrine Liver Metastases in Adults: A Systematic Review

The purpose of this article is to review the existing English scientific literature and determine the superior modality between transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) and radioembolization (TARE) in the treatment of neuroendocrine liver metastases (NELMs). To that end, we followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines to search PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar. We identified 14 observational studies and no randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the use of TACE or TARE to treat NELM. We used the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale to assess the risk of bias in these studies. We concluded that TACE and TARE appeared to have similar outcomes when comparing overall survival, progression-free survival, radiological response, symptomatic response, and the incidence of severe adverse events. Further large-scale RCTs are needed to identify the superior modality conclusively. We also identified several unique prognostic factors for overall survival, such as the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, volumetric multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging, serum albumin, alkaline phosphatase, and pancreastatin.