Trial Information

Efficacy of Sequential Arterial and Portal Vein Embolizations on Increasing the Resectability of Hepatitis B Related Primary Hepatocellular Carcinoma

In China, primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is mostly a hepatitis B related disease.
The liver function of these patients has been damaged, which often limit the execution of
major hepatectomy. A tumor is generally regarded as unresectable if the future liver remnant
(FLR)≤40％ of total liver volume in patient with underlying liver disease. In China, TACE is
the most common treatment for these unresectable HCC. TACE can slow down tumor progress but
has little effect on enlarging FLR. Recently, PVE has been employed to enlarge the FLR of
the patients so as to increase the resectability and surgical safety of major hepatectomies.
But the intrahepatic arterioportal shunt and the tumor progress has decreased the effect of
PVE. In order to shut the arterioportal shunt and control the tumor progress TACE sometimes
is performed before PVE. In this study we design a randomized control trial to investigate
the efficacy of sequential TACE and PVE on increasing the resectability of hepatitis B
related HCC compared with TACE alone.