Graphical abstract AuthorsSorafenib vs. sorafenib + cTACE in patients with advanced HCC vs. HighlightsSorafenib combined with concurrent chemoembolization did not improve overall survival.Combination therapy significantly improved tumor response and secondary outcomes.Sorafenib alone remains first-line standard of care for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Lay summaryFor patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma requiring sorafenib therapy, co-administration with conventional transarterial chemoembolization did not improve overall survival compared to sorafenib alone. Therefore, sorafenib alone remains the first-line standard of care for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.http://dx.improved time to progression, progression-free survival, and tumor response rate. Sorafenib alone remains the first-line standard of care for patients with advanced HCC.Lay summary: For patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma requiring sorafenib therapy, co-administration with conventional transarterial chemoembolization did not improve overall survival compared to sorafenib alone. Therefore, sorafenib alone remains the first-line standard of care for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Clinical Trial Number: NCT01829035. Ó 2018 European Association for the Study of the Liver. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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Background: Although numerous chemotherapeutic agents have been tested, the role of systemic chemotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been clarified. New therapeutic strategies are thus needed to improve outcomes, and we designed this study with new effective drug combination.

Anti-inflammatory signals of SOCS through STAT-1/STAT-3 activation and JAK2 inactivation might be a key anti-inflammatory mechanism of probiotics, setting probiotics as a non-microbial strategy to H. pylori infection.

The presence of single genotype and unique mutations may be related with the circulation of endemic HAV over a long period of time in Korea.