Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Jul 15, 2026; 18(7): 119136
Published online Jul 15, 2026. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v18.i7.119136
Published online Jul 15, 2026. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v18.i7.119136
Comparative analysis of curative efficacy and prognostic factors across treatment modalities for early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (BCLC 0/A)
Wen Zheng, Qing-Lin Zhang, Gang-Gang Yin, Wei-Gang Chen, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shihezi University, Shihezi 832000, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China
Ping Lv, Qiang Zhu, Department of Gastroenterology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong Province, China
Co-first authors: Wen Zheng and Ping Lv.
Author contributions: Zheng W and Lv P contribute equally to this study as co-first authors; conception and design were performed by Zheng W, Lv P, Zhu Q and Chen WG; administrative support was performed by Zheng W, Lv P, Zhu Q, Zhang QLZ and Yin GG; provision of study materials or patients was performed by Zheng W, Lv P, Zhu Q, Zhang QL, Yin GG and Chen WG; collection and assembly of data were performed by Zheng W, Lv P, Zhu Q, Zhang QL and Yin GG; data analysis and interpretation were performed by Zheng W, Lv P, Zhu Q, Zhang QL and Yin GG; manuscript writing and final approval of manuscript were performed by all authors.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Science and Technology Ethical Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Shihezi University (Approval No. KJX2022-073-01).
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was waived by given the retrospective study design.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author reports no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Corresponding author: Wei-Gang Chen, MD, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shihezi University, No. 107 North 2nd Road, Hongshan Sub-district, Shihezi 832000, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. 13579456959@126.com
Received: January 23, 2026
Revised: February 12, 2026
Accepted: March 3, 2026
Published online: July 15, 2026
Processing time: 163 Days and 16.8 Hours
Revised: February 12, 2026
Accepted: March 3, 2026
Published online: July 15, 2026
Processing time: 163 Days and 16.8 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Our findings support liver resection (LR) as the first-line preferred treatment modality for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer 0/A stages. Simultaneously, we observed that combination therapy regimens achieve non-inferior overall survival and progression-free survival benefits compared to LR alone. Therefore, treatment-eligible early-stage HCC patients clinically indicated for combination therapy should actively pursue such regimens to attain similarly favorable prognostic outcomes.