Clinical effect of transarterial chemoembolization combined with radiofrequency ablation in treatment of rabbit VX2 liver tumors

Objective To investigate the clinical effect of transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) combined with radiofrequency ablation (RFA) (TACE + RFA) versus RFA or TACE alone in the treatment of rabbit VX2 hepatic tumors and related pathological changes.Methods The rabbits were sacrificed at 7 days after surgery, and the maximal diameter of coagulative necrotic zone or hemorrhagic infarct zone was compared, as well as typical pathological sections.An analysis of variance was used for comparison of continuous data between multiple groups, and the least significant difference t-test was used for further comparison between two groups.Results One rabbit in the RFA group died of pneumothorax and one in the TACE + RFA group died of extensive liver necrosis at 2 days after surgery.The other 16 rabbits survived to the end of observation, resulting in a success rate of 88.9% (16/18) .There were significant differences between the TACE + RFA group and the other two groups in the maximal long and short diameters of coagulative necrotic zone and tumor cell necrosis rate (all P < 0.05) .The pathological analysis revealed greater vascular thrombosis, larger necrotic zone, and fewer clusters of viable tumor cells in the TACE + RFA group, compared with the other groups.Conclusion TACE + RFA has a better effect in tumor destruction than RFA or TACE alone.