Prediction and Prognostic Analysis of Liver Abscess Formation After Transcatheter Arterial Chemoembolization for Hepatocellular Carcinoma : a Retrospective Multicenter Nested Case-control Study (CHANCE 2407)

Liver abscess is a rare but serious complication of hepatocellular carcinoma after TACE, with an incidence of less than 1% reported in previous literature. Studies have shown that history of biliary tract disease, tumor size, embolization materials and embolization endpoint selection may be related to the occurrence of abscess. In recent years, with the wide application of targeted and immune drugs, there have been reports of multiple cases of liver abscess after single target immunotherapy for liver cancer, and there have also been studies showing that TACE combined with targeted immunotherapy can significantly increase the degree of liquefaction necrosis and increase the risk of liver abscess. However, these studies are single-center reports with small sample size and low level of evidence. Therefore, it is of great clinical significance to explore the risk factors of liver abscess after TACE and build a prediction model by using multi-center and large sample data. The formation of liver abscess after TACE means a large range of tissue liquefaction necrosis. There are reports of high incidence of early recurrence and metastasis of liquefaction necrosis. Some studies also show that tumor necrosis is more complete when liver abscess is combined with complete remission. In previous studies, ORR in patients with liver cancer complicated with liver abscess ranged from 18.75%-100%, with significant differences in reports from different centers. The effect of specific abscess formation on TACE efficacy of liver cancer remains to be determined. Therefore, the second research focus of this project is to explore the effect of liver abscess formation after TACE on prognosis of liver cancer.