Treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma by transarterial injection of anticancer agents in iodized oil suspension or of radioactive iodized oil solution.

Transarterial injection of modified iodized oil was performed in 48 patients with hepatoma. In 41 cases an adriamycin and/or mitomycin C-iodized oil suspension was administered into the proper hepatic artery or peripheral hepatic branches. A reduction in tumor size of over 50 per cent was obtained in 14 of the 33 patients in whom CT examination was performed before and after treatment. Serum alpha-fetoprotein levels decreased in 20 of 21 cases within the first month after injection. The one-year survival rate was estimated at 55 per cent in advanced hepatoma. In 7 patients, transarterial internal irradiation using radioactive iodized oil was carried out. A decrease in tumor size was observed in all cases and in alpha-fetoprotein levels in 6 cases. One patient with severe liver cirrhosis died in hepatorenal failure. No severe complications or other adverse reactions were encountered with either of the methods.