Cui R, Wang X, Ma C, et al. - Researchers compared microwave ablation (MWA) vs transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) as management options for solitary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) smaller than 5 cm, focusing on overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). From the Chinese PLA General Hospital, they selected patients with solitary HCC smaller than 5cm who initially treated with MWA or TACE. Using a 1:1 matching protocol, they carried out propensity score matching, resulting in 116 patients (58 patients for each treatment group). Compared with TACE, significantly better OS and PFS were achieved with MWA for both the entire cohort and the matched cohort. In subgroup analysis, a significantly better OS and PFS was observed in the MWA group vs the TACE group among patients with a tumor of 3cm or less. A link of TACE with worse OS and PFS was revealed in multivariate Cox regression analysis. In deciding between MWA and TACE for single tumors less than 5cm, particularly those smaller ones (≤ 3cm), MWA should be given preference.