Abstract: Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of epirubicin drug-eluting beads-transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (DEB-TACE) in the treatment of patients with unresectable primary liver cancer (PLC). Methods 78 patients with unresectable PLC were enrolled in our hospital between January 2016 and June 2019, and 42 patients received TACE and 36 patients underwent epirubicin DEB-TACE. The clinical efficacy was evaluated based on RECIST 3 months after treatment and the treatment-related adverse events were recorded. All patients were followed-up for two years, and the survival rate was compared by Log-Rank test. Results The complete remission (CR), partial remission (PR), stable disease (SD) and progressive disease (PD) in DEB-TAC-treated patients were 16.7%, 66.7%, 13.9% and 2.8% with the objective remission (OR) rate of 83.3%, significantly different compared to 2.4%, 52.4%, 33.3% and 11.9% with OR of 54.8% in TACE-treated patients (P<0.05); after treatment, the grade one and grade two abdominal pain in DEB-TACE-treated patients were 11.1% and 33.3%, significantly different compared to 30.9% and 14.3% in TACE-treated patients (P<0.05), and grade one nausea and vomiting was 27.8%, significantly higher than 9.5% in patients receiving TACE treatment (P<0.05); at the end of two-year follow-up, the 1 year survival rates in TACE-treated and DEB-TACE-treated patients were 71.4% and 80.5% (P>0.05), while the 2 year survival rates were 42.9% and 69.4%, significantly different (P<0.05). Conclusion DEB-TACE is efficacious in the treatment of patients with unresectab PLC without increased side effect, which might be related to the increased local drug concentration.

Key words: Hepatoma, Drug-eluting beads-transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, Therapy, Survival