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. 2013 Jun;27(6):351–363. doi: 10.1155/2013/417894

TABLE 11.

Characteristics of the randomized controlled trials evaluating other adjuvant therapies

Study (reference) Adjuvant protocol and number of patients Patients’ baseline characteristics
Tumour characteristics Liver disease Follow-up
Cancer vaccine therapy
Kuang et al (59) Study arm: intradermal injection of autologous formalin-fixed tumour vaccine for 3 courses (one course consisted of 5 injections of the tumour vaccine followed by a two-week interval); n=18
Control arm: no adjuvant therapy; n=21
TNM stage I–IIIA; single tumour 95%; tumour size ≥5 cm 51%; intrahepatic metastasis or vascular invasion 33% C-P A 92%; cirrhosis 54%; HBV 90% Median 15 months
Internal radiation therapy
Lau et al (60, 61) Study arm: transhepatic arterial infusion of iodine 131-labelled lipiodol (1850 MBq) for one time; n=21
Control arm: no adjuvant therapy; n=22
Median tumour size 4.4 cm for study arm and 3.8 cm for control arm; vascular invasion 5% Okuda stage I–II; HCV 88% Median 34.6 or 66 months
Antibody targeted radioimmunotherapy
Xu et al (62) Study arm: iv hLicartin* 15.4 MBq/kg for 3 times (28-day intervals); n=30
Control arm: the same dosage of placebo; n=30
TNM stage III–IV; single lesion with tumour size >5 cm 72%; multiple lesion with tumour size >3 cm 28%; portal vein cancer thrombi 45% C-P A 43%; cirrhosis 100%; HBV 88% Median 12.3 months
Heparanase inhibitor PI-88 therapy
Liu et al (63) Study arm 1: subcutaneous injection of PI-88 160 mg/day for 9 courses (one course consisted of consecutive 4 days of daily PI-88 for 3 weeks and a one-week interval); n=56
Study arm 2: PI-88 250 mg/day given with the same protocol as arm 1; n=54
Control arm: no adjuvant therapy; n=58
Single tumour 85%; mean tumour size 4.9 cm for study arm 1, 5.1 cm for study arm 2 and 5.5 cm for control arm; vascular invasion 23% C-P A 96%; cirrhosis 56%; HBV 73% 379–381 days
*

Iodine 131-labelled metuximab (HAb18 F[ab′]2).

Chengdu Hoist Hitech Co Ltd, China; and the Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China. C-P Child Child-Pugh class; iv Intravenous.