Abstract: Objective The aim of this study was to observe the long-term efficacy of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation and chemotherapy in the treatment of children with advanced hepatoblastoma (HB). Methods 41 children with advanced HB were encountered in our hospital between August 2013 and February 2017, and were divided into control (n=18) and observation group (n=23), receiving CAO chemotherapy, or HIFU ablation after chemotherapy. All the children were followed-up for five years. The percentages of peripheral blood CD3⁺, CD4⁺, CD8⁺ cells were determined by FCM. Results The effective rate and disease control rate in the observation group were 65.2% and 87.0%, both much higher than 33.3% and 55.6%(P＜0.05) in the control; 3 months after treatment, the percentages of CD4⁺ cells and the ratio of CD4⁺/CD8⁺ cells in the observation group were (42.5±3.9)% and (1.6±0.4), both significantly higher than [(39.4±3.5)% and (1.3±0.3), respectively, P＜0.05], while the percentages of CD3⁺ cells and CD8⁺ cells were (55.4±5.2)% and (26.1±2.4)%, both significantly lower than [(60.1±5.9)% and (30.0±2.8)%, respectively, P＜0.05] in the control group; the incidence of untoward effect in the observation group was 34.8%, not significantly different compared to 33.3% in the control (P＞0.05); the one-year, three-year and five-year survival rates in the observation group were 100.0%(21/21), 71.4%(15/21) and 28.6%(6/21) as two lost visit, also not significantly different as compared to 100.0%(17/17), 41.2%(7/17) and 11.8%(2/17) as one lost visit (Log-Rank=3.160, P=0.075) in the control group. Conclusion The HIFU ablation and chemotherapy has a clinical efficacy in the treatment of children with HB, which should be carefully investigated in the future.

Key words: Hepatoblastoma, Chemotherapy, High intensity focused ultrasound ablation, Therapy, Children