Abstract: Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy and safety of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization
(TACE) using cucurbitacin tablet combined with thalidomide in treatment of elderly patients with unresectable
primary liver cancer. Methods Total of 78 elderly patients with unresectable primary liver cancer in our
hospital from January 2013 to January 2014 were selected and divided into observation group and control
group according to random number table method, 38 cases in each group. All patients were treated with TACE,
patients in control group were given thalidomide on the basis of TACE and patients in observation group
were given cucurbitacin tablets on the basis of control group. The curative effect were evaluated according to
RECIST. Long curative effects and adverse reactions of both groups were observed. Results The total effective
rate in observation group was 89.4% (34/38), which was significantly higher than that of control group [71.1%
(27/38), χ 2 = 3.829, P = 0.040). The overall survival (OS) and progression-freely-survival (PFS) in observation
group were (21.5 ± 2.8) months and (17.4 ± 1.6) months, respectively, which were longer than those in control
group (U = 3.519, 3.691; P = 0.042, 0.041). No serious adverse reactions occurred during the treatment.
There was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions between the two groups (P ＞ 0.05).
Conclusion TACE using cucurbitacin tablet combined with thalidomide in treatment of unresectable primary
liver cancer in the ederly patients has an exact effect and is worthy of further study.