Combination of preoperative transcatheter arterial chemoembolization and surgery in treatment of hepatoblastoma

Objective To evaluate the influence of preoperative transcatheter arterial chemoembolization(TACE) on surgery in treatment of.hepatoblastoma.Methods Retrospective analysis was conducted to clinical data derived from 33 cases of children with hepatoblastoma between January 2006and December 2011.All patients underwent TACE for 2-4 course of treatment,followed by surgery.Afterwards,chemotherapy was conducted for 2 weeks.Results The tumor tissue was completely removed in all patients with better curative efficacy.The follow-up time for all case ranged 6 months to 5 years and 30 patients survived so far.Conclusions TACE effectively reduces the blood supply to tumor tissue,through which tumor was controlled to minimal size and curative efficacy was improved.The combined therapy is a better way to increase survival rate for children with hepatoblastoma. Key words: Carcinoma, hepatocellular; Embolization, therapeutic; Combined modality therapy