Peripheral hepatic artery embolization for primary and secondary hepatic neoplasms.

Abstract

Eighteen patients underwent peripheral arterial embolization with Gelfoam powder for treatment of primary or metastatic hepatic neopolasms. Except for 2 cases in which the patients could not undergo long-term arterial infusion, all cases were treatment failures from i.v. chemotherapy, intra-arterial chemotherapy, or, in some cases, intra-arterial chemotherapy plus radiation therapy. Fourteen patients had good symptomatic relief from the procedure. Four of these patients are alive at 3, 5, 6 and 18 mo. following the procedure. Four patients died within 2 wk following embolization, 3 of progression of disease and 1 of aspiration pneumonia. Of the patients following symptomatic relief, 10 died of progression of cancer 2-14 mo. following embolization, with a median survival of 5 mo. Based on the results in this small group of patients, transcatheter hepatic dearterialization apparently is often successful palliative therapy in patients who are not responsive to traditional therapies. Because of the low procedural morbidity, transcatheter embolization is superior to surgical dearterialization.