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    The content on this page is not current guidance and is only for the purposes of the consultation process.

    Methods

    NICE identified studies and reviews relevant to image-guided percutaneous laser ablation of primary and secondary liver tumours from the medical literature. The following databases were searched between the date they started to 26 July 2023: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and other databases. Trial registries and the internet were also searched (see the literature search strategy). Relevant published studies identified during consultation or resolution that are published after this date may also be considered for inclusion.

    The following inclusion criteria were applied to the abstracts identified by the literature search.

    • Publication type: clinical studies were included with emphasis on identifying good quality studies. Abstracts were excluded if they did not report clinical outcomes. Reviews, editorials, and laboratory or animal studies, were also excluded and so were conference abstracts, because of the difficulty of appraising study methodology, unless they reported specific adverse events that not available in the published literature.

    • Patients with primary or secondary liver cancer.

    • Intervention or test: image-guided percutaneous laser ablation.

    • Outcome: articles were retrieved if the abstract contained information relevant to the safety, efficacy, or both.

    If selection criteria could not be determined from the abstracts the full paper was retrieved.

    Potentially relevant studies not included in the main evidence summary are listed in the section on other relevant studies.

    Find out more about how NICE selects the evidence for the committee.

    Table 4 literature search strategy

    Databases

    Date searched

    Version/files

    MEDLINE (Ovid)

    26/07/2023

    1946 to July 24, 2023

    MEDLINE In-Process (Ovid)

    26/07/2023

    1946 to July 24, 2023

    MEDLINE Epubs ahead of print (Ovid)

    26/07/2023

    1946 to July 24, 2023

    EMBASE (Ovid)

    26/07/2023

    1974 to 2023 July 25

    EMBASE Conference (Ovid)

    26/07/2023

    1974 to 2023 July 25

    Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews – CDSR (Cochrane Library)

    01/08/2023

    Issue 8 of 12, August 2023

    Cochrane Central Database of Controlled Trials – CENTRAL (Cochrane Library)

    01/08/2023

    Issue 8 of 12, August 2023

    International HTA database (INAHTA)

    26/07/2023

    -

    The following search strategy was used to identify papers in MEDLINE. A similar strategy was used to identify papers in other databases.

    MEDLINE search strategy

    1 exp Liver Neoplasms/

    2 ((liver or hepatic* or bile or hepatocellular) adj4 (secondar* or primar* or neoplasm* or cancer* or carcinoma* or adenocarcinom* or tumour* or tumor* or malignan* or metastas* or lesion*)).tw.

    3 Bile Duct Neoplasms/

    4 (hepatoma* or cholangiocarcinoma* or hepatocarcinoma* or HCC).tw.

    5 Carcinoma, Hepatocellular/

    6 or/1-5

    7 Catheter Ablation/

    8 ((catheter* or needle* or electrode* or heat* or thermo* or thermal* or (transvenous adj1 electric*)) adj4 ablat*).tw.

    9 (thermoablat* or thermotherap*).tw.

    10 LITT.tw.

    11 Ablation Techniques/

    12 (percutan* adj4 (ablat* or therap* or treat*)).tw.

    13 (PLA or EUSLA).tw.

    14 (ultrasound* or ultra-sound* or ultrason* or sonograph* or echograph* or echotomograph*).tw.

    15 Ultrasonography/

    16 ultrasonography, interventional/ or endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration/

    17 Ultrasonic Therapy/

    18 (ultrasonic* adj4 (therap* or ablat* or treat*)).tw.

    19 or/7-18

    20 exp Laser Therapy/

    21 (laser* adj4 (therap* or ablat* or treat*)).tw.

    22 20 or 21

    23 19 and 22

    24 6 and 23

    25 Echolaser*.tw.

    26 24 or 25

    27 Animals/ not Humans/

    28 26 not 27

    29 limit 28 to english language