Highlights
- Large, multicenter randomized and observational trials evaluated surgery versus RFA for small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
- No statistically significant difference in 5-year overall survival (OS) or recurrence-free survival (RFS) between surgery and RFA.
- RFA demonstrated a favorable safety profile with no serious adverse events, compared to 3.3% in the surgery group.
- The findings support RFA as an effective, less invasive alternative to surgery for selected small HCC cases.
Study Background and Disease Burden