Intraarterial chemotherapy with lipid contrast medium for hepatic malignancies in infants

Antitumor drugs dispersed in a lipid lymphographic medium (Lipiodol, Laboratorie Guerbert, Rue Jean-Chaptal, France) were intraarterially administered in two infants with unresectable hepatoblastoma. The Lipiodol and antitumor drug complex was found to selectively accumulate in the tumor and was associated with a marked reduction in the tumor size and a 50% decrease in the alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level after 4 days in one patient and 16 days in the other. The tumor was successfully resected by right trisegmentectomy in one patient, but surgery was not performed on the other because of evidence of pulmonary metastasis. The patients had moderate fever for 2 to 3 days after the intraarterial chemotherapy. It is believed that intraarterial chemotherapy with Lipiodol may be a useful preoperative chemotherapy for initially unresectable hepatoblastoma.