Hepatic Resection Improved the Long-Term Survival of Patients with BCLC Stage B Hepatocellular Carcinoma: a Letter to Response

Excerpt

As a general principle, it is essential to generate, summarize, and understand the best available evidence in order to establish the effects and safety of interventions. Meta-analysis has become a valuable tool toward these ends,1 an approach that can play a critical role in generating guidelines and treatment recommendations to appropriate patients. Evidence-based medicine is the concept of treating patients according to the best available evidence of guidelines. This approach still can integrate all of the relevant evidence and provide a more reliable answer than any single study, however well conducted.1 Our meta-analysis enrolled eight retrospective studies with results were highly concordant. Although not ideal, it is still appropriate to conduct a meta-analysis with this information, and we discussed the limitations in evidence level in our manuscript.2 …