Particle embolization of recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma after hepatectomy

Abstract

BACKGROUND Complete surgical resection is the mainstay of treatment for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Unfortunately, most patients ultimately develop disease recurrence and the median survival from the time of recurrence is P = .03) At the time of last follow‐up, 3 patients (6.6%) were alive with no evidence of viable disease. CONCLUSIONS Bland arterial embolization was found to be an effective method of salvage therapy for patients with good liver function with recurrent HCC after prior surgical resection. Patients whose disease recurred with a solitary lesion appear to have a significantly increased survival compared with patients who develop disease recurrence with multiple tumors. A small proportion of patients can be rendered without evidence of viable disease. Cancer 2006. © 2006 American Cancer Society.