Advantages and disadvantages of hepatic artery embolization chemotherapy after liver cancer surgery

Whether liver cancer patients relapse after liver resection seriously affects the long-term survival rate of patients. Hepatic artery chemoembolization is a major measure to prevent liver cancer recurrence in patients after liver cancer resection.

The reason why hepatic artery chemoembolization after liver cancer resection can prevent liver cancer recurrence is that hepatic artery angiography should be performed at the same time as hepatic artery chemoembolization, and hepatic artery angiography is very sensitive to diagnosing whether there are tiny liver cancer metastatic lesions in the remaining liver after surgery, and can usually detect lesions with a diameter of 5mm. Arterial chemoembolization can kill these lesions, thereby reducing the possibility of postoperative recurrence in liver cancer patients. However, arterial chemoembolization can also damage liver function. If there are tiny metastatic lesions remaining in the remaining liver, then chemoembolization will not play a role in preventing and treating recurrence. On the contrary, excessive and repeated chemoembolization will damage liver function and affect the patient's long-term survival.

It can be said that there are advantages and disadvantages to performing hepatic artery embolization chemotherapy on patients with liver cancer after resection. However, so far, there is no method that is effective and has no side effects in preventing and treating recurrence.

Therefore, hepatic artery chemoembolization should be selectively used for patients with liver cancer after surgery. Patients with a high risk of recurrence after surgery, such as those with large tumors (diameter greater than 5 cm), multiple tumors, or vascular invasion (cancer thrombi in portal vein branches or vascular invasion found under a microscope), should be given auxiliary hepatic artery chemoembolization; patients with small liver cancer, no vascular invasion, and severe liver cirrhosis are not suitable for hepatic artery chemoembolization.