Table 2.

Randomized clinical trials that evaluated an adjuvant therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Types of treatment	Arms	No. of patients	Improved RFSa	Improved OS	Ref.
TKI	sorafenib vs. placebo	1114	no	no	11
	muparfostat (PI-88) vs. placebo	519	no	–	67
	peretinoin vs. placebo	377	no	–	68
IFN	IFN-α vs. no treatment, for HBV-related HCC	236	no	yes	6
	IFNα-2b vs. no treatment, for viral hepatitis-related HCC	268	no	no	69
	IFNα vs. no treatment, for HCV-related HCC	30	yes	–	70
	IFNα-2b vs. no treatment,	86	no	no	21
Chemotherapy	Capecitabine vs. no treatment	60	yes	no	71
	tegafur/uracil vs. no treatment	117	no	no	72
	tegafur/uracil vs. no treatment	159	no	no	73
	epirubicin + carmofur vs. no treatment	56	no	no	74
Immunotherapy	CIK vs. no treatment	230	yes	yes	7
	autologous dendritic cells vs. no treatment	156	no	no	75
	CIK vs. no treatment	200	no	no	76
	CIK 3 courses vs. CIK 6 courses vs. no treatment	127	yes	no	77
	Autologous formalin-fixed tumor vaccine vs. no treatment	41	yes	yes	78
	Adoptive immunotherapy vs. no treatment	150	yes	no	79
	recombinant interleukin-2 and lymphokine-activated killer cells + adriamycin vs. adriamycin alone	24	no	no	80
Locoregional therapy	TACE vs. no treatment	280	yes	yes	8
	TACE vs. no treatment	250	yes	yes	24
	TACE vs. no treatment	115	yes	yes	81
	HAIC vs. no treatment	135	yes	–	82
	epirubicin hydrochloride + TACE vs. no treatment	66	no	no	83
	pre- and post-operative targeting locoregional chemotherapy-immunotherapy vs. no treatment	36	yes	–	84
TCM	Huaier granule vs. no treatment	1044	yes	yes	85
	Intravenous Cinobufacini + oral Jiedu granule vs. TACE	364	yes	yes	86
Radiotherapy	external beam radiotherapy vs. no treatment	119	no	no	87
	iodine-125 brachytherapy vs. no treatment	68	yes	yes	46
	intra-arterial iodine-131-lipiodol vs. single unlabeled lipiodol	58	yes	no	88
	intra-arterial iodine-131-lipiodol vs. no treatment	103	no	no	89
	intra-arterial iodine-131-lipiodol vs. no treatment	43	yes	yes	90,91
Anti-HBV	telbivudine vs. no treatment, for serum HBV-DNA < 2000 IU/mL	200	yes	yes	18
	adefovir vs. no treatment, for serum HBV-DNA > 2000 IU/mL	200	yes	yes	9
	Lamivudine, adefovir dipivoxil, or entecavir vs. no treatment, for serum HBV-DNA > 500 copies/mL	163	yes	yes	10
Others	vitamin K2 analog (menatetrenone) vs. no treatment	101	yes	no	92
	polyprenoic acid vs. placebo	89	yes	–	93

RFS, recurrence-free survival; OS, overall survival; TKI, tyrosine kinase inhibitor; TCM, traditional Chinese medicine; TACE, transcatheter chemoembolization; CIK, chemokine-induced killer cells.

^aIf RFS was not reported, recurrence rate or time to recurrence were evaluated.