BACKGROUND: The incidence and mortality rates of primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are high, and the conventional treatment is radiofrequency ablation (RFA) with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE); however, the 3-year survival rate is still low. Further, there are no visual methods to effectively predict their prognosis.
OBJECTIVE: To explore the factors influencing the prognosis of HCC after RFA and TACE and develop a nomogram prediction model.
METHODS: Clinical and follow-up information of 150 patients with HCC treated using RFA and TACE in the Hangzhou Linping Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine from May 2020 to December 2022 was retrospectively collected and recorded. We examined their prognostic factors using multivariate logistic regression and created a nomogram prognosis prediction model using the R software (version 4.1.2). Internal verification was performed using the bootstrapping technique. The prognostic efficacy of the nomogram prediction model was evaluated using the concordance index (CI), calibration curve, and receiver operating characteristic curve.
RESULTS: Of the 150 patients treated with RFA and TACE, 92 (61.33%) developed recurrence and metastasis. Logistic regression analysis identified six variables, and a predictive model was created. The internal validation results of the model showed a CI of 0.882. The correction curve trend of the prognosis prediction model was always near the diagonal, and the mean absolute error before and after internal validation was 0.021. The area under the curve of the prediction model after internal verification was 0.882 [95% confidence interval (95%CI): 0.820-0.945], with a specificity of 0.828 and sensitivity of 0.656. According to the Hosmer-Lemeshow test, χ 2 = 3.552 and P = 0.895. The predictive model demonstrated a satisfactory calibration, and the decision curve analysis demonstrated its clinical applicability.
CONCLUSIONS: The prognosis of patients with HCC after RFA and TACE is affected by several factors. The developed prediction model based on the influencing parameters shows a good prognosis predictive efficacy.

Primary liver cancer (PLC) is one of the most common malignant gastrointestinal tumors worldwide. Limited by the shortage of liver transplantation donors and the heterogeneity of tumors, patients with liver cancer lack effective treatment options, which leads to rapid progression and metastasis. Currently, preclinical models of PLC fall short of clinical reality and are limited in their response to disease progression and the effectiveness of drug therapy. Organoids are in vitro three-dimensional cultured preclinical models with a high degree of heterogeneity that preserve the histomorphological and genomic features of primary tumors. Liver cancer organoids have been widely used for drug screening, new target discovery, and precision medicine; thus representing a promising tool to study PLC. Here, we summarize the progress of research on liver cancer organoids and their potential application as disease models. This review provides a comprehensive introduction to this emerging technology and offers new ideas for researchers to explore in the field of precision medicine.

BACKGROUND: Fufang Banmao capsules (FFBM), a traditional Chinese medicine, has been used to treat primary liver cancer (PLC) for several years. However, the bioactive ingredients, and mechanism of FFBM for treating PLC remains unclear. Our objective is to utilize network pharmacology to investigate these aspects and subsequently validate their effectiveness through clinical data.
METHODS: The FFBM ingredients were obtained from the HERB database and screened for bioactive ingredients using the SwissTargetPrediction database. The PharmMapper and GEO database were used to acquire targets and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) for FFBM and PLC, respectively. Common targets were identified using Venn diagrams, followed by enrichment and protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis. Furthermore, the Cytoscape software was utilized to identify Hub genes and construct the ingredienttarget- pathway network. Subsequently, patients diagnosed with unresectable PLC who underwent transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) at our hospital between January 2008 and December 2019 were retrospectively collected. Finally, Cox analysis was conducted to reveal the role of FFBM in the treatment of unresectable PLC.
RESULTS: FFBM had 232 targets, and PLC had 1582 DEGs. HSP90AA1 and SRC were identified as crucial targets. Alpha-santalol, glycyrrhizin, and morroniside were identified as the top three bioactive ingredients. Enrichment analysis revealed a significant connection between FFBM utilization for treating PLC and multiple pathways, such as chemical carcinogenesis, PI3K-AKT, Rap1, FoxO, MAPK, and VEGF pathway. Clinic data revealed that consuming FFBM significantly improved the prognosis of unresectable PLC with a hazard ratio of 0.69.
CONCLUSIONS: Our study identified the bioactive ingredients of FFBM and its potential mechanisms for treating PLC. Additionally, we validated the effectiveness through clinical data.

Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway dysregulation is involved in the pathogenesis of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, and the sonic Hh (SHh) protein, a pivotal molecule in the Hh pathway, is expressed in ballooned hepatocytes. The present study aimed to investigate the clinicopathological significance of SHh expression in steatohepatitic hepatocellular carcinoma (SH-HCC). Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry were performed to examine SHh gene and SHh protein expression in SH-HCC. Additionally, patients with conventional HCC (C-HCC) were included in the control group. Comparisons of patient and tumor characteristics were also performed. The prevalence of SH-HCC was 3% in the whole cohort, and it was significantly associated with a high prevalence of diabetes mellitus. SHh mRNA was detected in all patients with SH-HCC, but not in 23% of patients with C-HCC. Notably, SHh mRNA expression was not significantly different between patients with SH-HCC and those with C-HCC; however, high SHh protein expression was significantly more frequent in SH-HCC patients than in those with C-HCC. Although the prognosis was not significantly different between the SH-HCC and C-HCC groups, high SHh protein expression was an independent poor prognostic factor for HCC. In conclusion, SHh could potentially serve as a therapeutic target for patients with HCC.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate clinical effects of hepatic artery interventional embolization chemotherapy (TACE) for primary hepatocellular carcinoma (PHC).
METHODS: 73 patients with PHC in our hospital from January 2017 to January 2018 were selected and divided into 37 cases in study group and 36 cases in control group by random number table method. The control group received only ultrasound-guided microwave ablation treatment, and the study group received TACE treatment again before surgery based on control group. The expression levels of cancer antigen 125 (CA125), alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), multiple tumor suppressors 1 (P16) proteins, and cancer antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) were compared between the two groups at different time periods after treatment, and the remission rate (ORR), control rate (DCR), complication rate at 3 months after treatment and survival rate at 3 years after treatment were compared.
RESULTS: After 1 year of treatment, ORR, DCR, and P16 protein levels in the study group were higher than those in the control group (P < 0.05), and differences were statistically significant; CA125, CA19-9, and AFP levels in study group were lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05), and differences were statistically significant. The regression equation showed that long-term survival rate of both groups showed decreasing trend over time, while long-term survival rate of study group was always higher than that of the control group.
CONCLUSIONS: Comprehensive intervention for hepatic artery interventional chemoembolization in patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma is more effective, which can effectively reduce incidence of complications and adverse effects in patients and help shorten treatment time of hepatic artery interventional chemoembolization in patients.