Abstract:

Objective To compare ethanol injection with or without transcatheter arterial chemoembolization（TACE） for treating small hepatocellular carcinoma.　Methods　Clinical data of 50 patients with small hepatocellular treated at our hospital from October 2008 to November 2014 were retrospectively analyzed.　Patients were treated with ethanol injection combined with TACE（n=41） or with ethanol injection alone（n=9）.　The two groups were compared in terms of alpha fetoprotein（AFP） negative rate，AFP decrease rate，and survival rates at 1，2，and 3 years.　Results In the combination treatment group，the AFP negative rate was 66.67%，the AFP decrease rate was 90.48%，and survival rates were 87.80% at 1 year，80.49% at 2 years and 75.61% at 3 years.　The corresponding results for the ethanol-only group were 14.29%，71.43%，77.78%，55.56% and 33.34%.The combination group showed higher AFP negative rate and higher 3-year survival rate than the ethanol-only group.　Conclusions Ethanol injection with TACE is superior to ethanol injection alone for small hepatocellular carcinoma，so it should be considered as a valuable treatment against this disease.

Key words: Liver neoplasms, Percutaneous ethanol injection, Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, Small hepatocellular, Efficacy