{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,26]],"date-time":"2026-08-26T06:25:29Z","timestamp":1787725529042,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,19]],"date-time":"2025-09-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1758240000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Pharmacol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Aim<\/jats:title><jats:p>This study aims to compare the efficacy of postoperative adjuvant transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (PA-TACE) and postoperative adjuvant hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy (PA-HAIC) in patients with BCLC Stage 0-B Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) at high risk of recurrence following radical resection.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>This study retrospectively evaluated HCC patients who underwent radical liver resection (LR) at two clinical centers between 1 January 2018, and 31 December 2024. The recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were compared among three groups: those who received LR alone, PA-TACE, and PA-HAIC. Propensity score matching (PSM) was applied to minimize inter-group differences and further validate the findings.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>A total of 609 patients with high-risk recurrence following radical resection of HCC were included in this study. After PSM, both PA-TACE and PA-HAIC significantly improved median RFS (mRFS) and median OS (mOS) compared with LR alone (mRFS for the LR, PA-TACE, and PA-HAIC groups was 16.5 months, 39.0 months, and 46.0 months, respectively; mOS was 54.0 months, 68.0 months, and not reached for PA-HAIC, respectively). Furthermore, patients treated with PA-HAIC achieved superior mRFS as well as higher 1-year, 2-year, and 4-year RFS rates compared with those treated with PA-TACE. Similarly, PA-HAIC was associated with a significantly longer mOS and a higher 4-year OS rate than PA-TACE. In the construction of the RFS nomogram, the C-indexes for the training and validation cohorts were 0.802 and 0.799, respectively, demonstrating good predictive ability.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>In HCC patients with high-risk recurrence following radical resection, PA-HAIC significantly improves RFS compared to PA-TACE, but only in patients with MVI, tumor diameter \u22655\u00a0cm, or multiple tumors.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fphar.2025.1657794","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,19]],"date-time":"2025-09-19T12:57:17Z","timestamp":1758286637000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Comparative efficacy of postoperative adjuvant transcatheter arterial chemoembolization and hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy in patients with BCLC stage 0-B hepatocellular carcinoma at high risk of recurrence following radical resection"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Xu","family":"Feng","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yupei","family":"Ao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiarui","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jue","family":"Yuan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhengrong","family":"Shi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chengjia","family":"Tang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"8635","DOI":"10.1158\/0008-5472.CAN-08-0917","article-title":"Sphingosine kinase 1: a new modulator of hypoxia inducible factor 1alpha during hypoxia in human cancer cells","volume":"68","author":"Ader","year":"2008","journal-title":"Cancer Res."},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"139","DOI":"10.1038\/nrc2067","article-title":"The tumour microenvironment as a target for chemoprevention","volume":"7","author":"Albini","year":"2007","journal-title":"Nat. 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