Purpose This study aims to evaluate the treatment out-
comes of iodized oil transarterial chemoembolization
(TACE) and subsequent radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for
small (B3 cm) periportal hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
compared with nonperiportal HCC.
Methods Twenty-three patients [periportal group (PG);
mean age, 59.8 years; 22 men, 1 woman] with periportal
HCC (in contact with the portal vein [3 mm in diameter)
and 279 patients [nonperiportal group (NPG); mean age,
59.1 years; 234 men, 45 women] with nonperiportal HCC
were treated between March 2010 and January 2014. All
cases were contraindicated for ultrasound-guided RFA or
resection. Mean tumor size was 1.2 cm in each group. The
baseline characteristics were not different between the
groups, except for alpha-fetoprotein level (41.0 ng/dL in
NPG vs. 8.8 ng/dL in PG, p = 0.001). Local tumor pro-
gression (LTP), disease-free survival (DFS), overall sur-
vival (OS), intrasegmental recurrence, and complications
were analyzed using the Kaplan–Meier method and Fish-
er’s exact test.
Results TACE and RFA were successfully performed in all
patients. Mean follow-up period of PG and NPG was 33.8

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• Iodized Oil Transarterial Chemoembolization and Radiofrequency Ablation for Small Periportal Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Comparison with Nonperiportal Hepatocellular Carcinoma