DOI: 10.1148/radiol.2463071311
(Radiology 2008;246:982.)
© RSNA, 2008
An Inaccurate Literature Review and Citation
Orlando Catalano, MD,
Paolo Vallone, MD,
Francesco Izzo, MD, and
Alfredo Siani, MD
Department of Radiology and of Surgical Oncology "D," National Cancer Institute, Fondazione Pascale, via M. Semmola 1, 80131, Naples, Italy
e-mail: orlandcat{at}tin.it
Editor:
We read with interest the article from Dr Zhang and colleagues (1) in the August 2007 issue of Radiology, in which they compared radiofrequency ablation (RFA) alone and RFA combined with percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). It is a prospective trial demonstrating that the combined use of RFA and PEI was associated with better local tumor control and better long-term survival than was the use of RFA alone.
We congratulate the authors on their accurate and impressive study. The main strengths are the prospective and randomized nature of the study and the availability of long-term follow-up data. Nevertheless, we wish to inform the Radiology readers that the authors forgot to mention some relevant articles on this topic. In 2002, Kurokohchi and co-workers (2) had already published an article (in addition to the one cited in the article by Dr Zhang and colleagues) highlighting the importance of using combined RFA and PEI therapy to treat HCCs located in areas difficult or risky to ablate with RFA alone. Then, in 2004, Shankar et al (3) reported on their series of 30 patients with lesions larger than 5 cm (mostly metastases) effectively treated by using combined RFA and PEI therapy. In 2005, Kurokohchi and colleagues (4) published findings of a study comparing RFA alone and RFA with PEI for patients with HCC. Finally, in 2006, we published an article (5) demonstrating the effectiveness of RFA-PEI combination in the treatment of HCCs larger than 4 cm.
We are a little surprised with both the authors of this article and the specific Radiology reviewers for their omission of the necessary bibliography.
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References
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- Zhang YJ, Liang HH, Chen MS, et al. Hepatocellular carcinoma treated with radiofrequency ablation with or without ethanol injection: a prospective randomized trial. Radiology 2007;244:599–607.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Kurokohchi K, Watanabe S, Masaki T, et al. Combination therapy of percutaneous ethanol injection and radiofrequency ablation against hepatocellular carcinomas difficult to treat. Int J Oncol 2002;21:611–615.[Medline]
- Shankar S, vanSonnenberg E, Morrison PR, Tuncali K, Silverman SG. Combined radiofrequency and alcohol injection for percutaneous hepatic tumor ablation. AJR Am J Roentgenol 2004;183:1425–1429.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Kurokohchi K, Watanabe S, Masaki T, et al. Comparison between combination therapy of percutaneous ethanol injection and radiofrequency ablation and radiofrequency ablation alone for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. World J Gastroenterol 2005;11:1426–1432.[Medline]
- Vallone P, Catalano O, Izzo F, Siani A. Combined ethanol injection therapy and radiofrequency ablation therapy in percutaneous treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma larger than 4 cm. Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol 2006;29:544–551.[CrossRef][Medline]
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