The short-term safety and efficacy of TANDEM microspheres of various sizes and doxorubicin loading concentrations for hepatocellular carcinoma treatment

Drug-eluting bead transarterial chemoembolization (DEB-TACE) is the most common treatment for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the effect of drug loading concentration and microsphere size on treatment outcomes remains unclear. This retrospective study compares the outcomes of 87 HCC patients who underwent DEB-TACE with half-loaded or full-loaded doxorubicin (maximum capacity 50 mg/mL) in 75-µm or 100-µm microspheres. Treatment with 100-μm microspheres resulted in significantly lower rates of procedure-related complications (6.6% vs. 26.9%; P < 0.05), post-embolization syndrome (32.8% vs. 61.5%, P < 0.05), SIR complications (32.8% vs. 61.5%; P < 0.01) and adverse events involving abdominal pain (19.7% vs. 42.3%; P < 0.05). Half-load doxorubicin microspheres resulted in greater treatment response (OR, 4.00; 95% CI 1.06–15.13; P, 0.041) and shorter hospital stays (OR, − 1.72; 95% CI − 2.77–0.68; P, 0.001) than did microspheres loaded to full capacity. Stratified analysis further showed that patients treated with 100-μm half-load doxorubicin microspheres had a higher CR (63.6% vs 18.0%) and ORR (90.9 vs 54.0%) and a shorter hospital stay (1.6 ± 1.3 vs 4.2 ± 2.3 days) than did those treated with full-load microspheres (P < 0.05). Thus, the drug-loading concentration of microspheres in DEB-TACE should be carefully considered.