What are the side effects of interventional treatment for liver cancer

Interventional treatment of liver cancer is a way to treat liver cancer. However, while this method can achieve certain therapeutic effects, its side effects cannot be ignored. Moreover, this treatment method is difficult to operate, has obvious side effects, and can also cause damage to normal liver cells.

1. Disadvantages of interventional treatment:

1. Liver cancer's main blood supply depends on the hepatic artery, but the cancer mass is surrounded by the portal vein, so cancer cells can "survive in peace".

2. The operation is somewhat difficult. The catheter should be selectively inserted into the blood supply artery for best results, but sometimes it is difficult to enter the hepatic artery. Some liver cancers may have multiple blood vessels supplying blood.

3. Despite super-selective access, there are still obvious side effects. According to the data analysis of our hospital, the most common reactions are in the gastrointestinal tract.

4. Patients with portal vein cancer thrombus should consider removing the cancer thrombus as appropriate.

5. Even if the superselective operation is carried out smoothly, due to reasons such as high-pressure injection, it may cause accidental embolism, shunting and inevitable micro-metastasis.

6. Normal liver cells are still damaged, and a few patients even suffer from liver dysfunction.

7. The therapeutic effect is not satisfactory for patients with large cancer masses.

8. Some patients’ blood vessels are blocked after one treatment, making further operations difficult.

Second, the advantages of interventional treatment:

1. The therapeutic effect is definite. Those who are successfully treated can see a rapid decrease in AFP, reduction in tumor size, and relief of pain.

2. Scientific mechanism: The local drug concentration of interventional therapy is dozens of times higher than that of systemic chemotherapy, and it blocks the blood supply to the tumor. Therefore, the two-pronged approach has good efficacy and less toxicity than systemic chemotherapy.

3. Simple and easy operation, safe and reliable.

4. The elderly, weak and those with certain diseases can also undergo the procedure without general anesthesia and they just need to stay awake.

5. The cost is relatively low.

6. It can be repeated, and the diagnostic imaging is clear and easy to compare.

7. For some liver cancers, the size can be reduced and then resected in two steps.

8. It can be used as one of the important means of comprehensive treatment of advanced tumors.