Abstract: Objective This study was conducted to investigate targeted and immunotherapy plus transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) in the treatment of patient with primary liver cancer (PLC). Methods A total of 100 PLC patients were encountered in our hospital between May 2021 and April 2023, randomly divided into control (n=50) and observation (n=50) groups, and all patients in the two groups underwent TACE for two to five times. Patients in the observation group received target medicine, including apatinib or cangvatinib, and immunomodulators, including carilizumab or trelizumab, etc., combination therapy for three months. Peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets were detected by FCM, serum AFP level were routinely obtained, and serum macrophage metastasis inhibitor (MIF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels were determined by ELISA. Results By end of three month treatment, Objective response rate (ORR) in the observation group was 62.0%, much higher than 42.0% in the control group (P<0.05); after treatment, percentage of peripheral blood CD4⁺ cells and ratio of CD4⁺/CD8⁺cells in the observation group were (46.8±4.6)% and (1.8±0.3), both much higher than [(37.3±4.2)% and (1.3±0.3), respectively, P＜0.05], while percentage of CD8⁺ cells was (25.1±2.4)%, much lower than [(28.5±2.5)%, P＜0.05] in the control; serum AFP, MIF and VEGF levels were (110.2±27.5)μg/L, (55.8±10.1)ng/mL and (180.1±48.7)pg/mL, all significantly lower than [(288.1±31.5)μg/L, (80.1±11.3)ng/mL and (261.1±54.3)pg/mL, respectively, P＜0.05] in the control; by end of one-year follow-up, survival rate in the observation group was 66.0%, not statistically significantly different as compared to 46.7% in the control group (Log-Rank=2.643, P=0.104). Conclusin Targeted and immunotherapy with combination of TACE in dealing with patients with advanced PLC could get a satisfactory short-term clinical efficacy, which might be related to improvement of body immune functions, but the long-term efficacy should be investigated further.

Key words: Hepatoma, Targeted therapy, Immunotherapy, Transcatheter hepatic arterial chemoembolization, Survival