International Scholarly Research Notices

Review Article

Hepatocellular Carcinoma More Than 3 cm in Diameter: A Systematic Review of Transcatheter Arterial Chemoembolization Plus Percutaneous Ethanol Injection versus Transcatheter Arterial Chemoembolization Alone

Table 2

Assessment of quality using the GRADE system.


Quality assessment							Quality
Outcomes	Number of studies	Risk of bias	Inconsistency	Indirectness	Imprecision	Other considerations	Quality

1-year survival rate	12	Serious¹	No serious inconsistency	No serious indirectness	No serious imprecision	None	MODERATE
2-year survival rate	11	Serious²	No serious inconsistency	No serious indirectness	No serious imprecision	None	MODERATE
3-year survival rate	7	Serious³	No serious inconsistency	No serious indirectness	No serious imprecision	Reduced effect for RR 1 or RR 1^3,4	HIGH
CR	3	Serious⁵	No serious inconsistency	No serious indirectness	No serious imprecision	None	MODERATE
CR + PR	5	Serious⁶	No serious inconsistency	No serious indirectness	No serious imprecision	None	MODERATE

All trials stated randomization, but random sequence generation was unclear in 10 of 12 included trials.
²All trials stated randomization, but random sequence generation was unclear in 9 of 11 included trials.
³All trials stated randomization, but random sequence generation was unclear in 5 of 7 included trials.
⁴RR 2.66 1 (1.99, 3.57).
⁵All trails stated randomization, but random sequence generation was unclear in 3 included trials.
⁶All trials stated randomization, but random sequence was unclear in 5 included trials.