Body gamma knife combined with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization for primary hepatic carcinoma

Objective To evaluate the effects of stereotactic conformal radiotherapy-body gamma knife combined with transcath- eter arterial chemoembolization(TACE)for primary hepatic carcinoma(PHC).Methods Thirty-six patients with unresectable PHC were randomly divided into two groups.Twenty patients in group A were simply treated with TACE,16 patients in group B with TACE combined with gamma knife.The therapeutic effect,survival rate and complication of the patients were assessed.Of these 36 patients,21 presented with a solitary lesion and 15 with multiple ones.Twenty-two patients received only one course of TACE while 14 several courses.The total radiation dose of body gamma knife was 36—42Gy.Results The local response rates were respectively 75.0%(15/20),93.8%(15/16)and 65.0%(13/20),81.3%(13/16)at three months and one year after treatment in group A and B.There were 7CR,6PR,2NC and 5PD of group A compared with 8CR,5PR,0NC and 3PD of group B.The 1 year survival rates were respectively 70.1% and 92.2% in group A and B,with a median survival duration of 9.2 and 11.8 months.Conclusion The stereotactic conformal radiotherapy technique-body gamma knife combined with transcatheter arterial che- moembolization is an effective and traumatic approach in the treatment of unresectable PHC.