Recent research progress on surgery combined with radiation therapy for primary liver cancer / 中华放射肿瘤学杂志

ABSTRACT

Surgical resection is the main radical treatment of early and mid-stage primary liver cancer (PLC), but the high postoperative recurrence rate is the main factor affecting the curative effect. With recent advancement in techniques, the efficacy and safety of radiation therapy for PLC have been widely proven. In this review, we will investigate the combination of surgery and radiation therapy, covering the topics of preoperative or postoperative radiotherapy for PLC with portal vein tumor thrombus, postoperative adjuvant radiotherapy in PLC with narrow surgical margin or microvascular invasion, stereotactic body radiation therapy as a bridge to liver transplantation, radiotherapy in conversion to resectability for intrahepatic inoperable PLC. Despite radiation therapy is one of the effective therapeutic options for PLC, there is still a compelling need for prospective, randomized, controlled phase Ⅲ trials to acquire high-levelclinical evidence for confirming the role of radiation therapy in the treatment of PLC.