Interventional Therapy for Hepatic Cancer

Interventional therapy, also called chemoembolization, is a minimally invasive treatment for liver cancer. The procedure is performed under guidance of imaging equipment. A tiny catheter was threaded up the femoral artery in the groin into the blood vessels supplying the liver tumor. And then the anticancer drug is injected to the tumor directly through the catheter. In addition, an embolic agent is placed inside the blood vessels that feed the tumor, in effect trapping the chemotherapy in the tumor.

Advantages of interventional therapy include as follows:

1.Good efficacy. After treatment is proceeded successfully, AFP decreases rapidly and the tumor shrinks obviously.

2.Reasonable mechanism. High concentration of chemo drug is targeted to the tumor locally and precisely, which is 10 times higher than systemic chemotherapy. Besides, embolism is performed at the same time to block the blood supply of the tumor so that the tumor of oxygen and nutrients are deprived. 

3.Few side effect. There are fewer or milder side effects compared with chemotherapy given in a vein because the medications are trapped in the liver and not circulating through out the body.

4.The procedure is simple and safe, and can be performed repeatedly.

5.Small trauma. Interventional therapy is a non-surgical treatment, it only requires a tiny incision (2-3mm) in the skin. 

6.Interventional therapy can be used for the elder patients or those without a supportable body to undergo surgery and intravenous chemotherapy. 

It can be included as one of integrative methods to treat advanced cancer.