Comprehensive Analysis of Factors Affecting Clinical Response and Short-Term Survival to Drug-Eluting Bead Transarterial Chemoembolization for Treatment in Patients With Liver Cancer

This study aimed to investigate the clinical response and short-term survival and further explore the comprehensive factors for predicting clinical outcomes in patients with liver cancer treated by drug-eluting beads transarterial chemoembolization . Forty-nine patients with liver cancer who received drug-eluting beads transarterial chemoembolization treatment were consecutively enrolled in this cohort study. Demographic features, medical histories, clinicopathological properties, biochemical indexes, previous treatments, and chemoembolization reagents were recorded. Ten (20.4%) patients achieved complete response and 31 (63.3%) patients achieved partial response after drug-eluting beads transarterial chemoembolization treatment, with overall response rate of 83.7%. Logistic analysis revealed that high aspartate aminotransferase (P = .041), high carbohydrate antigen 199 (P = .030), and low hemoglobin (P = .020) could independently predict less possibility for complete response achievement. As to survival analysis, high alkaline phosphatase (P = .040), low albumin (P = .033) low hemoglobin (P = .018), portal vein invasion (P = .025), higher Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (P = .011), and higher Child-pugh stage (P = .001) were independent predictors for worse overall survival. In conclusion, the present study validated that drug-eluting beads transarterial chemoembolization was effective and well tolerated for patients with liver cancer, and high aspartate aminotransferase, high alkaline phosphatase, low albumin, low hemoglobin, portal vein invasion, higher Child-pugh stage, higher Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage, higher Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status were correlated with worse outcomes.