Postoperative adjuvant TACE for patients of hepatocellular carcinoma in AJCC stage I: friend or foe? a propensity score analysis

BACKGROUND: Although the transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) was demonstrated to be an alternative treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma with favorable oncological effect, the benefit of postoperative adjuvant TACE was still controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of postoperative TACE in hepatocellular carcinoma. RESULTS: The 1, 3, and 5–year overall and disease–free survival rates were comparable between Surgery+TACE and Surgery groups. In subgroup analysis, tumor size (≥ 5 cm) was detrimental to disease–free survival (p = 0.028) and an inferior tendency of overall survival was presented. Besides, repeated TACE for patients contributed to a poor disease–free survival (p = 0.005). While, postoperative adjuvant TACE improved the overall survival in patients with high preoperative alpha–fetoprotein or positive pathologically (p = 0.039 and p = 0.045). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The data were collected from consecutive patients between January 2010 and September 2014. After propensity score matching, baseline characteristics, overall and disease–free survival were compared between two groups. Subsequently, univariate and subgroup analysis were carried on. CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicated that single postoperative adjuvant TACE was beneficial for selected patients of stage I with tumor less than 5 cm, or high preoperative alpha–fetoprotein in serum or positive of alpha–fetoprotein pathologically.