Abstract: Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical efficacy of drug-eluting bead transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (DEB-TACE) followed by microwave ablation (MWA) in dealing with patients with large primary liver cancer (PLC). Method 50 consecutive patients with large PLC were encountered in our hospital between May 2018 and May 2021, and were randomly divided into control and observation group, with 25 cases in each group. The patients in the control group was treated with conventional TACE and thereafter MWA, and the patients in the observation received DEB-TACE followed by MWA. All patients were followed-up and the efficacy was evaluated by complete remission (CR), partial remission (PR), stable disease (SD), progressive disease (PD), objective remission rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Results After treatment, the CR, PR, SD, ORR and CDR in the observation group were 44.0%, 48.0%, 4.0%, 92.0% and 96.0%, much superior to 36.0%, 24.0%, 16.0%, 60.0% and 76.0% (P<0.05) in the control; serum AFP and AFP-L3 levels in the observation were (121.5±63.7) ng/mL and (7.1±0.2)%, both much lower than in the control; after (18.3±6.7) month of follow-up after treatment, the fatality rate in the observation group was 24.0%, not significantly different compared to 48.0% in the control (x²=3.125, P=0.077); the median PFS in the observation and in the control were 8.3 mon and 5.3 mon (t=3.172, P=0.075), and the median OS in the two groups were 14.5 mon and 9.4 mon (t=2.432, P=0.082), not significantly different. Conclusion The short-term efficacy of DEB-TACE and MWA combination in treatment of patients with large PLC is definite, while the long-term efficacy should investigate further in the future.

Key words: Hepatoma, Drug-eluting bead transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, Microwave ablation, Therapy