Table 5. TACE with non-TACE combination therapy vs. TACE alone/TACE with non-TACE combination therapy/non-TACE in managing unresectable HCC.

BCLC: Barcelona clinical liver cancer; BSC: best supportive care; DEB-TACE: drug-eluting beads transarterial chemoembolization; HCC: hepatocellular carcinoma; MWA: microwave ablation; RT: radiotherapy; TACE: transarterial chemoembolization; RFA: radiofrequency ablation; TTUP: time to untreatable progression

References	Design	Subjects	Criteria for inclusion	TACE alone/TACE with non-TACE/non-TACE	TACE alone/TACE with non-TACE/ non-TACE	Outcome
Wei et al. (2020) [34]	Retrospective study	108	Unresectable HCC	TACE+MWA	TACE+RFA	Median survival of both the groups (20.9 months and 13 months) with unresectable HCC was increased. TACE combined with MWA also decreased the rate of complication occurrence (66% vs. 88.3%).
Yoon et al. (2018) [36]	Randomized clinical trial	90	Liver confined HCC showing macrovascular invasion	TACE +RT	Sorafenib	RT offered better progression-free survival (87% vs. 34.3%) than sorafenib and was very well tolerated with a higher radiological response rate (33.3% vs. 2.2%) and overall survival (55 weeks vs. 43 weeks).
Kalva et al. (2011) [39]	Retrospective study	54	Unresectable HCC	DEB-TACE	-	DEB-TACE was effective with better median survival at six months, one year, and two years at a percentage of 77%, 59%, and 32%, respectively, and overall median survival of 95%; DEB-TACE was well tolerated in patients with unresectable HCC.
Kudo et al. (2020) [41]	Randomized, multicentre, prospective trial	156	Unresectable HCC	TACE + sorafenib	TACE	Patients with TACE combined with sorafenib had a significant median progression-free survival (25.2 months vs. 13.5 months), the median time to untreatable progression (TTUP) ( 26.7 months vs. 20.6 months), and better overall survival at one and two years (96.2% and 82.7%) than TACE alone (77.2% and 64.6%).
Britten et al. (2012) [42]	Pilot study	30	HCC	TACE+ Bevacizumab	-	TACE when used in combination with bevacizumab, demonstrated less neovascularity (14% vs. 33%) compared to patients who had undergone TACE alone.
Finn et al. (2020) [43]	Interventional, global, open-label, phase III trial	336	Unresectable HCC without prior systemic therapy	Atezolizumab+ Bevacizumab	Sorafenib	Patients are given atezolizumab combined with bevacizumab, which resulted in increased median overall survival (6.8 months vs. 4.3 months) and progression-free survival at 12 months (67.2% vs. 56.6%) compared to sorafenib.