Table 1.
Characteristics of the included hepatocellular carcinoma management guidelines (n=23).
| Guideline (years) | Guideline name (s) | Comparing RFA and LR (Yes or No) | Organization, country, or region | Level of evidence included | Grade of recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AASLD (2023, 2018, 2018) | Prevention, diagnosis, and treatment/ Treatment/Diagnosis, Staging, and Management | Y | American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), America | GRADE/level 1-5; high, medium, low, very low | GRADE/strong, weak; strong, conditional |
| AGA (2022) | Systemic Therapy | N | American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), America | GRADE/high, medium, low, very low | GRADE/strong, conditional |
| APASAL (2017) | Management | Y | The Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL), the Asia-Pacific region | GRADE/A,B,C | GRADE/1,2 |
| APPLE (2020) | Treatment of Intermediate-Stage HCC | N | The Asia-Pacific Primary Liver Cancer Expert (APPLE), the Asia-Pacific region | No information | No information |
| ASCO (2024, 2021) | Systemic Therapy for Advanced HCC | N | American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), America | GRADE/high, medium, low, very low | GRADE/high, moderate, low |
| BCLC (2022) | Prognosis prediction and treatment | Y | The Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) group, Europe |
No information | No information |
| Canada (2021) | Hepatocellular Carcinoma | Y | Alberta Health Services, Canada | No information | No information |
| Chinese (2023, 2020) | Diagnosis and Treatment | Y | The Society of Liver Cancer of China, China | GRADE/high, moderate, low, and very low | GRADE/high, moderate, weak; Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine Levels of Evidence (2011) |
| ESAL (2018) | Management | Y | European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), Europe | GRADE/high, medium, low | GRADE/strong, weak |
| ESMO (2018, 2021) | Management/diagnosis, treatment and follow-up/treatment | Y | ESMO Guidelines Committee, Europe | Adapted Infectious Diseases Society of America-United States Public Health Service Grading System/I, II, III, IV, V | Adapted Infectious Diseases Society of America-United States Public Health Service Grading System/A,B, C, D, E |
| Japan (2023, 2019) | HCC | Y | The Japan Society of Hepatology (JSH), Japan | GRADE/no mention of the evidence level | GRADE/no mention of the evidence level (2019) |
| Korea (2022, 2019) | Management | Y | The Korean Liver Cancer Association (KLCA)–NCC Korea Practice Guideline Revision Committee (KPGRC), Korea |
GRADE/high (A), medium (B), low(C) | GRADE/strong (1), weak (2) |
| NCCN (2024, 2021) | Hepatocellular Carcinoma/Hepatobiliary Cancers | Y | The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), America | NCCN categories of evidence and consensus/1, 2A, 2B, 3 | NCCN categories of evidence and consensus/1, 2A, 2B, 3 |
| Taiwan (2024, 2021) | Management, Surveillance, Diagnosis, Systemic Treatment, and Post-treatment Monitoring | N [2024], Y [2021] | The Taiwan Liver Cancer Association (TLCA) and the Gastroenterological Society of Taiwan, Taiwan | Evidence from BMJ 1999/Level 1,1a,1b,2,3,4; Evidence from BMJ 1999/1,1a,1b,2,3,4 |
Recommendation from BMJ 1999/Strong, moderate, considerable; Recommendation from BMJ 1999/A,B,C,D |
AASLD, American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases; AGA, the American Gastroenterological Association; APASL, The Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver; APPLE, the Asia-Pacific Primary Liver Cancer Expert; ASCO, American Society of Clinical Oncology; BCLC, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer; BMJ, British medical journal; EASL, European Association for the Study of the Liver; ESMO, European Society for Medical Oncology; EORTC, European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer; GRADE, the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations; HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma; JSH, the Japan Society of Hepatology; KLCA, the Korean Liver Cancer Association; KPGRC: NCCN, NCC Korea Practice Guideline Revision Committee; National Comprehensive Cancer Network; TCLA, the Taiwan Liver Cancer Association.