What is interventional treatment for liver cancer? Analysis of indications for interventional treatment for liver cancer

Liver cancer has become one of the major diseases that endangers society and human health, and it has brought great pain and distress to humans. In order to reduce the incidence of liver cancer, interventional treatment of liver cancer is very necessary. Next, let's learn about what interventional treatment of liver cancer is, as well as the indications, advantages and disadvantages of interventional treatment of liver cancer.

What is interventional treatment for liver cancer?

Interventional treatment of liver cancer is the full name of interventional treatment of liver cancer. It is a minimally invasive treatment method that uses a tiny channel with a diameter of several millimeters on the blood vessels and skin, or through the original channels of the human body, to treat the local lesion under the guidance of imaging equipment (angiography, fluoroscopy, CT, MR, B-ultrasound) without exposing the lesion through surgery. Interventional treatment of liver cancer refers to a regional local chemotherapy that injects anticancer drugs or embolic agents into the hepatic artery through femoral artery catheterization. It is the preferred method for non-laparotomy treatment of liver cancer, and its efficacy has been confirmed.

Indications for interventional therapy of liver cancer

1. When used before liver tumor resection, it can shrink the tumor and facilitate resection. It can also determine the number of lesions and control metastasis.

2. Advanced liver cancer that cannot be surgically removed, without severe liver and kidney dysfunction, without complete obstruction of the portal vein, and with tumor occupancy rate < 70%.

3. Small liver cancer.

4. Patients with surgical failure or recurrence after resection.

5. Control pain, bleeding and arteriovenous dysfunction.

6. Preventive hepatic artery chemoembolization after liver cancer resection.

Advantages and disadvantages of interventional treatment for liver cancer

Advantages of interventional treatment for liver cancer

1. The efficacy is definite. Successful treatment can show a rapid decrease in AFp, reduction in mass, 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 the blood supply to the tumor is blocked. Therefore, the two-pronged approach has good efficacy and less toxicity than systemic chemotherapy;

3. Interventional treatment of liver cancer is simple, easy, safe and reliable;

4. The elderly, the weak, and those with certain diseases can also undergo the procedure without general anesthesia and must remain awake;

5. The diagnostic imaging is clear and can be repeated, which is convenient for multiple comparisons;

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

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

8. The cost of interventional treatment for liver cancer is relatively low.

Disadvantages of interventional treatment for liver cancer

1. Despite super-selective entry, there are still obvious side effects, with the digestive tract reacting the most, causing discomfort to the human body.

2. 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 secretly.

3. The operation is somewhat difficult. The catheter should be placed in the blood supply artery in a selective manner to achieve the best effect. However, sometimes it is difficult to enter the hepatic artery. However, some liver cancers can be supplied by multiple blood vessels.