Stereotactic body radiotherapy combined with transarterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma with portal vein tumor thrombosis

• Published in: Molecular and clinical oncology 2014-01, Vol.2 (1), p.43-50
• Main Authors: KANG, JINGBO, NIE, QING, DU, RUI, ZHANG, LIPING, ZHANG, JUN, LI, QILIANG, LI, JIANGUO, QI, WENJIE
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Blood clots; Chemoembolization; Drug dosages; Drug therapy; Ethics; Health aspects; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Liver cancer; Medical imaging; Methods; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Oncology; Patient outcomes; portal vein tumor thrombosis; primary hepatocellular carcinoma; Radiation therapy; Radiotherapy; stereotactic body radiotherapy; Therapeutic chemoembolization; Thrombosis; transcatheter arterial chemoembolization; Veins & arteries; γ-knife
• ISSN: 2049-9450; 2049-9469
• DOI: 10.3892/mco.2013.196

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy, toxicity and adverse effects of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) combined with transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with portal vein tumor thrombosis (PVTT). A total of 101 patients diagnosed with primary HCC with PVTT were enrolled in this study and were randomly divided into three groups as follows: group A, 34 patients treated with γ-SBRT followed by TACE; group B, 37 patients treated with TACE followed by γ-SBRT; and group C, 30 patients treated with γ-SBRT alone. The effective response rate for the entire patient sample was 87.1% (88/101) following a 3-month treatment. The differences in the response rate, survival rate, α-fetoprotein level restoration rate and rate of improvement of abdominal distention and discomfort between groups A and B were not statistically significant (P>0.05). However, the rates of groups A and B were higher compared to those of group C (P