Safety and efficacy of 125 I brachytherapy for bilateral lung recurrences from hepatocellular carcinoma after resection or ablation

To evaluate the safety and efficacy of I brachytherapy to treat bilateral lung recurrences from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after resection or ablation. We retrospectively recruited 95 patients with bilateral lung recurrences from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after resection or ablation who had received 3-6-month sorafenib with or without stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), from October 2011 to January 2015; patients were then randomly divided into two groups, 44 patients received computed tomography (CT)-guided I brachytherapy (group A), and 51 patients were treated with supportive and symptomatic treatments (group B). The median survival time was 19 months (range of 3-36 months). The local response rate (LRR) at 3, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 and 36 months in group A was 81.8%, 65.9%, 59.1%, 45.0%, 38.6%, 22.7%, 11.4%, respectively, and 64.7%, 47.1%, 33.3%, 25.4%, 15.7%, 11.7%, 7.8%, respectively, in group B (P