Costanzo 2015.

Study characteristics
Methods	Randomised clinical trial
Participants	Country: Italy Number randomised: 140 Postrandomisation dropouts: 0 (0%) Revised sample size: 140 Average age: 70 years Females: 40 (28.6%) Cirrhosis: 140 (100%) Very early HCC: not stated Portal hypertension: not stated Viral aetiology: not stated Immunotherapy/antiviral adjuvant therapy: not stated Average follow‐up period in months (for all groups): not stated Criteria for early or very early HCC and other inclusion criteria: Milan criteria Child A or B No vascular invasion No distant metastases
Interventions	Participants were randomly assigned to 2 groups: Group 1: laser (n = 70). Further details: laser: EchoLaser, Elesta s.r.l. Group 2: radiofrequency ablation (n = 70). Further details: radiofrequency ablation: Cool‐tip, Valleylab.
Outcomes	The outcomes reported were: mortality, cancer‐related mortality, adverse events, HCC recurrence.
Notes	Authors provided additional information in February 2017.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Quote: "computer‐generated random numbers"
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Comment: this information was not available.
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	Comment: blinding of participants and personnel was not performed (author replies).
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	Comment: blinding of outcome assessors was not performed (author replies).
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Comment: there were no postrandomisation dropouts.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	Comment: important clinical outcomes were reported.
For‐profit bias	Low risk	Comment: no special source of funding (author replies)
Other bias	Low risk	Comment: no other bias noted.