Table 2.
Subgroup analysis based on the tumor size and the age
| Criteria | OS | RFS | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NO. of studies | NP | HR (95% CI) | I2 | p value Q test | No. of studies | NP | HR (95% CI) | I2 | p value Q test | |
| TACE+RFA vs. TACE | ||||||||||
| ≤ 3cm | 4 | 623 | 0.57 (0.41–0.81) | 24% | 0.27 | 2 | 365 | 0.47 (0.30–0.73) | 62% | 0.10 |
| > 3cm | 9 | 1238 | 0.61 (0.52–0.73) | 0% | 0.63 | 3 | 598 | 0.56 (0.35–0.89) | 67% | 0.05 |
| Age < 60 | 6 | 783 | 0.61 (0.51–0.73) | 0% | 0.57 | 1 | 83 | 0.51 (0.30–0.87) | NA | NA |
| Age ≥ 60 | 6 | 834 | 0.58 (0.46–0.74) | 0% | 0.74 | 4 | 531 | 0.46 (0.36–0.57) | 9% | 0.35 |
| TACE+RFA vs. RFA | ||||||||||
| ≤ 3cm | 3 | 533 | 0.77(0.55–1.09) | 22% | 0.28 | 3 | 533 | 0.82 (0.57–1.19) | 0% | 0.91 |
| > 3cm | 6 | 669 | 0.61 (0.49–0.76) | 0% | 0.54 | 5 | 678 | 0.55 (0.45–0.67) | 0% | 0.47 |
| Age < 60 | 5 | 799 | 0.61 (0.49–0.77) | 41% | 0.15 | 4 | 731 | 0.55 (0.43–0.70) | 0% | 0.68 |
| Age ≥ 60 | 4 | 318 | 0.72 (0.49–1.04) | 0% | 0.51 | 4 | 318 | 0.80 (0.58–1.11) | 0% | 0.63 |
TACE transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, RFA radiofrequency ablation, NP number of patients, NA not applicable, HR hazard ratio, OS overall survival, RFS recurrence-free survival