Clinical trial · Interventional
Comparison Between Radiofrequency Versus Ethanol Injection for the Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Comparative Study Between Radiofrequency and Ethanol Injection for the Ablation of Small Hepatocellular Carcinoma Associated With Liver Cirrhosis
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 8, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260908-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
Ethanol injection has been for many years the standard approach as percutaneous treatment of non-surgical early hepatocellular carcinoma in cirrhotic patients. Radiofrequency ablation has been proposed as an alternative approach and some retrospective and prospective comparative trials indicated its better performance for the local control of the disease in comparison to ethanol injection. Some prospective randomized studies from Japan and from Taiwan reported also an increase of overall survival in the patients treated by Radiofrequency. Aim of this study is to compare the two techniques in a prospective randomized trial in western patients.
Conditions
Conditions (1)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carcinoma, Hepatocellular | Hepatocellular Carcinoma | ONTOLOGY_EXACT | 0.98 |
Interventions
Interventions (1)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| percutaneous ablation of hepatocellular carcinoma | Procedure | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (0)
[]Primary outcomes (1)
- measure
- Sustained complete response at one year after the treatment.
Secondary outcomes (4)
- measure
- early complete response(forty days after treatment)
- measure
- overall survival at the fourth year after the first treatment
- measure
- complications
- measure
- costs.
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 0 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: * Included were cirrhotic patients in Child-Pugh class A/B with 1 to 3 HCC nodes of ≤ 30mm in diameter. Exclusion Criteria: * Excluded were patients without liver cirrhosis, in Child-Pugh class C, with a platelets count \<40000, INR \>1.75, PTT \>40sec, hypo vascular HCC, lesions not detectable by ultrasonography (US), lesions close (≤1cm) to the gallbladder, hepatic hilum, colon or stomach, with venous invasion or metastatic disease
References
Publications (1)
- BACKGROUNDLencioni RA, Allgaier HP, Cioni D, Olschewski M, Deibert P, Crocetti L, Frings H, Laubenberger J, Zuber I, Blum HE, Bartolozzi C. Small hepatocellular carcinoma in cirrhosis: randomized comparison of radio-frequency thermal ablation versus percutaneous ethanol injection. Radiology. 2003 Jul;228(1):235-40. doi: 10.1148/radiol.2281020718. Epub 2003 May 20. PMID 12759473