- Efficacy of Hepatic Arterial Infusion Chemotherapy for Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma
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Sihyun Bae
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Journal of the Korean Liver Cancer Study Group. 2006;6(1):7-11. Published online June 30, 2006
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Abstract
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- Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ranks as the 3rd most common cancer in Korea. At the time of presentation
with HCC, many patients have poor hepatic reserve function and advanced HCC with portal vein thrombosis
(PVT) that precludes effective therapy. Surgical resection is the 1st choice treatment but, it is not a suitable
option for patients with advanced disease. Other treatment modalities, which have been used for unresectable HCC
with PVT, include systemic chemotherapy, hepatic arterial chemotherapy, tumor embolization, radiation therapy,
and a combination of the above. Because of the fatal toxicities often encountered with TACE in advanced HCC
patients with PVT, hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy is an alternative modality. This method enable repeated
chemotherapy infusions into the HCC lesions, and allows generating high antitumor effect and low adverse effects
such as hepatic artery occlusion or stenosis. In this review, the principles and efficacy of hepatic arterial infusion
chemotherapy for treatment of advanced HCC are reviewed. In the future, we need large scaled prospective
randomized trials to determine the definite role of this hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy.
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