A preliminary study on transcatheter arterial chemoembolization with polyvinyl alcohol particles in patients with large hepatocellular carcinoma

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) with 355～500μm polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) particles for treatment of larger hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods Seventy-three patients with larger HCC had been undergone TACE. Median tumor size was 12.3 (range 8.4～20.4) cm with Child-Pugh class A in all patients. The chemotherapy agents, Lipiodol and PVA were injected into tumor artery for each patient, with dose of PVA 100mg for 71 patients, 200mg and 50mg for each of another cases, respectively. The changes and responses of liver function and tumor size were noted. Results The tumor size decreased with an average of 3cm (P0.001). The iatrogenic insult of liver function was increased (P0.001). Conclusions TACE with use of PVA for larger HCC is an effective and feasible treatment modality, but preventive therapy for liver function failure has to be taken after the TACE.