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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Nov 24, 2025; 16(11): 112212
Published online Nov 24, 2025. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v16.i11.112212
Published online Nov 24, 2025. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v16.i11.112212
Long-term outcomes of thermal ablation vs surgical resection for single small hepatocellular carcinoma
Ying-Ming Gao, Sai-Kang Tang, Wei-Hua Zhi, Yue Han, Department of Interventional Therapy, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, China
Zhi-Wen Luo, Xin Yin, Xin-Yu Bi, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, China
Xue Yan, Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100006, China
Author contributions: Gao YM conducted formal analysis, software, validation, and wrote the original draft and prepared visualizations; Gao YM, Tang SK, Luo ZW, Zhi WH, Yan X, and Yin X contributed to investigation; Gao YM and Luo ZW contributed to data curation; Luo ZW and Han Y contributed to methodology; Bi XY and Han Y provided resources and contributed to review and editing; Han Y conceptualized and supervised the study, provided resources and project administration. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study has been reviewed and approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (approval No. 25/017-4963). The authors declare that there are no ethical or legal conflicts related to the content of this article.
Informed consent statement: The requirement for informed consent was waived by the Medical Ethics Committee of the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: Due to patient privacy regulations and institutional policies, the datasets are not publicly available. However, anonymized data may be made available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yue Han, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Interventional Therapy, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, No. 9 Dongdan 3rd Alley, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100021, China. doctorhan@163.com
Received: July 24, 2025
Revised: August 27, 2025
Accepted: October 27, 2025
Published online: November 24, 2025
Processing time: 120 Days and 12.2 Hours
Revised: August 27, 2025
Accepted: October 27, 2025
Published online: November 24, 2025
Processing time: 120 Days and 12.2 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This study evaluated the long-term outcomes of patients with single small hepatocellular carcinoma treated with thermal ablation (TA) or surgical resection. Overall, TA and surgical resection achieved comparable long-term outcomes; however, among patients aged 60 years or younger, TA was associated with better recurrence-free survival. This suggests that for younger patients seeking less invasiveness and faster recovery, TA is not merely an alternative - it may offer an advantage in reducing recurrence. Treatment decisions should still integrate tumor differentiation, liver function, and the experience of the clinical team.