Embolization and chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma.

A check on the rationale for embolization and chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma and a revisit to the background of the anatomy of blood supply to the liver is discussed. The technique of the embolization is different and mostly in the range of home made configuration. There is no data concerning the stability of different choices such as the popular mixture of cytotoxic agents and lipiodol. Therefore the authors have preferred the use of microencapsulated Mitomycin believing that this special formulation of the drug can attain the present best reproducibility. The survival of 32 treated patients was longer than the control group. Twelve, 36 and 60 month survival was 70%, 45% and 15% vs 37%, 0%, and 0% respectively.