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Recent clinical applications of external beam radiotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma according to guidelines, major trials and meta‐analyses
Author(s) -
Rim Chai Hong,
Yim Hyung Joon,
Park Sunmin,
Seong Jinsil
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of medical imaging and radiation oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.31
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1754-9485
pISSN - 1754-9477
DOI - 10.1111/1754-9485.12948
Subject(s) - medicine , hepatocellular carcinoma , external beam radiotherapy , randomized controlled trial , observational study , external beam radiation , clinical trial , radiation therapy , meta analysis , systematic review , medical physics , oncology , medline , radiology , brachytherapy , political science , law
Summary External beam radiotherapy (EBRT) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been widely used due to lack of high‐level evidence, despite its potent local therapeutic effect. While clinical evidence has accumulated and meta‐analyses of observational studies have provided integrated information to help in clinical decision‐making, a recent randomized trial demonstrated the benefit of EBRT in cases of HCC with major vessel invasion. Based on these trends, the efficacy of EBRT has been better recognized, and EBRT has been more frequently recommended in several international treatment guidelines newly updated in 2018. This review examined the key issues of EBRT in the guidelines updated in 2018 as well as recently published noteworthy randomized trials and meta‐analyses. Ongoing trials to identify the trends and direction of future research on EBRT for HCC were also reviewed.