Aim: To compare the overall survival (OS) and liver cancer-specific survival of advanced-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients who received transarterial radioembolization (TARE) with those who received nonoperative/interventional treatment (NOT).
Materials & methods: A total of 12,520 HCC patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database were categorized by treatment with either radioembolization or NOT. Kaplan-Meier and multivariate Cox regression were conducted.
Results: The TARE group had both a significantly longer median overall survival than the NOT group (TARE = 9 months; NOT = 2 months; p < 0.0001) and a significantly higher probability of liver cancer-specific survival (hazard ratio = 0.474).
Conclusion: TARE appears to provide a significant survival advantage over the NOT population in advanced HCC patients.
Keywords: advanced hepatocellular carcinoma; comparative effectiveness; hazard ratio; liver cancer-specific survival; nonoperative treatment; overall survival; palliation; prognostic prediction.