Chemoembolization of liver cancer with drug-loading microsphere 50-100μm

// Jun-Hui Sun 1 , Guan-Hui Zhou 1 , Yue-Lin Zhang 1 , Chun-Hui Nie 1 , Tan-Yang Zhou 1 , Jing Ai 2 , Tong-Yin Zhu 1 , Wei-Lin Wang 1 , Shu-Sen Zheng 1 1 Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Interventional Center, First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310003, P.R. China 2 Department of Ophthalmology, Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310009, P.R. China Correspondence to: Shu-Sen Zheng, email: shusenzheng@zju.edu.cn Keywords: chemoembolization, TACE, liver cancer, hepasphere microsphere, drug eluting microsphere Received: August 08, 2016     Accepted: December 07, 2016     Published: December 27, 2016 ABSTRACT Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) is the mainstay of treatment for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The efficacy of conventional TACE (cTACE) in liver metastases is not satisfactory, which might be due to the fact of embolic material used. Recently, as a new type of drug-loading microsphere, HepaSphere has been introduced in China. In this study, there were total 30 patients (18 males and 12 females) with liver cancer underwent embolization with Hepasphere microsphere. And a total of 44 TACE procedures were performed using 50-100μm HepaSphere. There were 16 patients diagnosed as HCC and 14 patients as liver metastases. The follow up period ranged from 3 to 15 months (median 10 months). Response rates were calculated on intention-to-treat basis. One month after TACE, total objective response was 63.3% and disease control rate was 86.7%. No severe complication (such as infection, liver abscess, abdominal bleeding, tumor rupture) was observed. In conclusion, chemoembolization with Hepasphere microsphere may be a safe and possibly effective palliative treatment for patients with liver cancer.