Abstract

Advanced hepatocellular carcinoma has a poor prognosis, especially in the cases with portal vein or IVC tumor thrombi. In such cases, surgical resection could not be a curative treatment option and transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) alone is usually ineffective. Recently, three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT) has been developed to better conform the radiation dose to the tumor volume in order to reach the goal of eradicating local disease without injuring normal tissue. Combination therapy with TACE and 3D-CRT could be considered as a treatment option for advanced HCC with PV or IVC tumor thrombi. We report here two cases with advanced HCC showing response to combination therapy with repeated TACE and 3D-CRT.

• Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma;Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization;Three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy;Tumor thrombi