Table 2. Summary of collected data regarding the procedural safety of cTACE and DEB-TACE from the studies in this review.

cTACE: conventional transarterial chemoembolization; DEB-TACE: drug-eluting bead TACE; HCC: hepatocellular carcinoma; RCT: randomized controlled trial; LFT: liver function test; AST: aspartate transaminase; ALT: alanine transaminase

Table credit: Javaria Ayyub

Authors [publication year]	Study type	Number of patients	Intervention studied	Results	Conclusions
Ma et al. (2019) [21]	Retrospective cohort	192; cTACE (n=98), DEB-TACE (n=94)	Comparison of cTACE and DEB-TACE for HCC in terms of safety	Patients receiving DEB-TACE experienced more pain during the intervention (p=0.037), pyrexia (p=0.023), and pain (p=0.035) during their hospital stay.	DEB-TACE patients experienced more adverse effects during the procedure and hospital stay.
Zhang et al. (2020) [9]	Retrospective cohort	1002; cTACE (n=608), DEB-TACE (n=394)	Complications of the intervention cTACE vs. DEB-TACE in HCC	DEB-TACE was associated with abdominal pain following the intervention than cTACE, with a statistical significance of p<0.001. In addition, DEB-TACE demonstrated higher rates of bile duct dilation (p<0.001), portal vein narrowing (p=0.006), and liver failure (p=0.03) against cTACE.	Weighed against cTACE, DEB-TACE is linked to an increased possibility of experiencing pain, liver toxicity, and injury to the liver or biliary system.
Ikeda et al. (2022) [15]	RCT	200; cTACE (n=101), DEB-TACE (n=98)	Assessment of adverse effects in the two types of TACE for HCC	A higher incidence of adverse effects (including pyrexia, pain, loss of appetite, and derangements in LFTs) was reported in cTACE patients compared to DEB-TACE patients.	cTACE had a higher incidence of adverse effects compared to DEB-TACE.
Razi et al. (2022) [18]	Retrospective cohort	40; cTACE (n=20), DEB-TACE (n=20)	Side effects of cTACE vs. DEB-TACE in early-stage HCC	DEB-TACE resulted in slightly more severe procedural complications, such as peritumoral ischemia and bile duct dilation. By contrast, cTACE had a higher incidence of refractory pain (90%) during the intervention than DEB-TACE (15%), along with a slightly higher incidence of post-embolization syndrome (PES), an increase in Child-Pugh class, and elevated LFT levels after the intervention.	DEB-TACE was noted to have more intra-procedural and immediately post-procedural complications.
Liu et al. (2018) [6]	Retrospective cohort	273; cTACE (n=201), DEB-TACE (n=72)	Comparison of conventional and DEB-TACE in patients with HCC five years after the intervention	Patients with DEB-TACE had lower mean AST, ALT, and bilirubin. The percentage of patients with normal AST and bilirubin was higher in the DEB-TACE group than in the cTACE group.	DEB-TACE showed better long-term outcomes as compared to cTACE.
Han et al. (2019) [14]	Meta-analysis	3195; cTACE (n=1746), DEB-TACE (n=1444)	Comparison of safety of cTACE compared to DEB-TACE in unresectable HCC	No significant difference between either groups in terms of safety.	Safety in either groups is comparable.