Efficacy evaluation of postoperative adjuvant TACE in preventing HCC recurrence within Milan criteria: A multi-center propensity score matching analysis based on pathological indicators.

Objective: Malignant biological behaviors such as microvascular invasion (MVI), satellite nodule formation and poor differentiation can appear in the postoperative pathology of early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which often indicates that it has entered the stage of malignant evolution earlier. This study aimed to evaluate tumor recurrence in HCC patients meeting the Milan criteria who underwent postoperative adjuvant transarterial chemoembolization (PA-TACE) based on postoperative pathological indices.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on 790 HCC patients within the Milan criteria who underwent hepatectomy across four medical centers, comprising 366 patients treated with PA-TACE and 424 patients without PA-TACE.