Interventional therapy for advanced liver cancer

Interventional treatment of liver cancer refers to a type of regional chemotherapy that injects anticancer drugs or embolic agents into the hepatic artery via femoral artery catheterization. It is currently the preferred method for non-laparotomy treatment of liver cancer, and its efficacy has been confirmed. It is mainly aimed at patients with advanced liver cancer. The main principle is to administer drugs to the liver cancer supply artery or embolize the hepatic artery through a catheter. There are three methods: selective hepatic artery perfusion therapy, selective hepatic artery embolization, and selective hepatic artery chemoembolization.

The so-called selective hepatic artery perfusion therapy is to puncture a small incision of 3 to 5 mm on the skin, insert a catheter into the artery to supply blood to the liver cancer, and then administer the drug through the catheter. The difference lies in the different drugs given.

Selective hepatic artery embolization, as the name suggests, is to selectively inject embolic agents into tumor blood vessels and tumor blood supply arteries through a catheter to block the blood supply to the tumor.

The common point between selective hepatic artery perfusion therapy and selective hepatic artery embolization is that both use drugs to affect or block the tumor vascular bed from the blood supply artery, thereby killing or inhibiting tumor cells. Selective hepatic artery chemoembolization is to give both chemotherapy drugs and embolic agents through a catheter, using both routes together.

The advantages of interventional therapy are that its local drug concentration is dozens of times higher than that of systemic chemotherapy, and it blocks the blood supply to the tumor, which is not only relatively less toxic, but also more effective. In addition, it is simple to operate, safe and reliable, and can be performed on the elderly, the weak, and those with other diseases without general anesthesia, so its cost is relatively low.