It is common knowledge that cancer of the liver is ever increasing in the whole world. There were majority of these cancers which were detected during the transitional or even in the advanced phases. However, even at present, there is an absence of a standard treatment which has been instituted for the medication of the cancer of the liver.

        The original article mentioned about transcatheter arterial chemoembolization or commonly known as TACE. This kind of medication reduces the development of tumor and at the same time, made enhancements on the patients’ survival. This is done by doing a combination of the outcome of targeted chemotherapy together with the obstruction of the supply of blood to the tumor. Also, there is another promising technology. This is known as the radiofrequency thermal ablation or RFA. This is usually conducted through the advancement of a designed probe towards the tumor. Then, radiofrequency energy is employed. One thing to be remembered though is that both of these technologies had boundaries and restrictions. These two types of therapies had been employed already to patients having huge cancer tumors in the liver. Yet, unfortunately, the benefits towards survival were not identified.

        Bao-Quan Cheng and his colleagues who were affiliated with Shandong University in China did a randomized controlled test. This was done to evaluate the long-standing advantages of merging TACE as well as RFA rehabilitations. This was conducted for cancer tumors of the liver which were bigger than three centimeters. When the experiment ended, majority of the patients died. However, it was observable that when the TACE and RFA medications were combined, there was a small percentage of death in the subjects. The original article included the different percentages of each category.

        In addition, those patients who had uninodular or multinodular kinds of cancer of the liver, their general survival was seen to be better in when the TACE and RFA therapies compared to when only the RFA was employed. The same was true for the TACE therapy. There were thirty three patients who obtained an impartial reaction to this medication. The treatment was continued for an approximated time of six months. This was applicable for all three categories. It was further concluded that TACE as well as RFA put together could lengthen the patient’s life. It was considered to be a successful and not dangerous medication which could expand the enduring survival of patients having hepatocellular carcinoma.

        There was also a supplementary editorial to the original article. Andrew Zhu who was connected with Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center as well as Harvard Medical School situated in Boston and also Ghassan About-Alfa who was affiliated with the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center based in New York expressed that the findings made showed much potential and were indeed promising. The research study conducted by Cheng and his colleagues offered initial proof which encouraged the employment of combining TACE and RFA as a fresh and novel medication alternative. This could be applied to highly chosen patients who possessed unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma. Despite of this, the rather optimistic results from the research continued to be an issue for controversy and debate. It has also resumed being an unsettled matter. This is very apparent especially in the specificity of the role of TACE and RFA altogether in the remedy of patients who had unresectable HCC.