Outcome of localized hepatocellular carcinoma treated with segmental arterioportal chemoembolization.

When lipiodol is injected into the hepatic artery at a dose exceeding a certain level, it flows into the portal vein. On the basis of this feature, an emulsion of Adriamycin with lipiodol was injected into a segmental or subsegmental artery such that it was delivered to the portal vein of the same segment, and the artery was then embolized with Gelfoam. This segmental arterioportal chemoembolization (cement therapy) was performed in 50 patients with localized hepatocellular carcinoma. A posttreatment CT scan showed that almost 100% of the lesions were occupied by lipiodol. The cumulative survival values determined for the 50 patients were very high: 83.4% after 1 year and 62.7% after 2 years.