Carbonions and Proton Therapy for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Meta-analysis

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of carbon ion and proton therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by Meta-analysis.

Methods PubMed, The Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Chinese Journal Full-text, Chinese Biomedical Literature and Wanfang Database were searched to collect relevant clinical studies on carbon ion and proton therapy for HCC. Two reviewers independently screened the literature and extracted data based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Meta-analysis was carried out by Stata 12.0.

Results We included 7 carbon ion and 23 proton therapy studies. According to the combined results, both carbon ion and proton therapies for HCC obtained good local control rate and low adverse reactions, and the incidence of severe adverse reactions was low. Subgroup analysis showed that carbon ion and proton therapies improved the 5-year OS of HCC patients with either favorable or poor prognosis.

Conclusion Both carbon ion and proton therapies may be the effective alternative treatment options for HCC with favorable prognosis, and also show better efficacy for HCC patients with poor prognosis.