Assessment of the feasibility of TACE combined with intratumoral injection of cisplatin in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract The feasibility of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) combined with intratumoral injection of cisplatin as treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma. 30 cases receiving TACE were denoted the TACE group, another 30 cases receiving TACE combined with an intratumoral multi-point injection of cisplatin were denoted the TACE/cisplatin group. Cases with partial remission/complete remission (PR/CR) were analyzed using 2 tests; alpha fetoprotein (AFP), aspartate amino transferase (AST), total bilirubin (TBIL), erythrocyte, and platelet levels were detected and the differences between two groups were analyzed using the Student’s t-test; cases with complications, including intrahepatic metastasis (IM), upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGB), and liver failure were also counted. The correlation of clinical parameters with PR/CR was analyzed using multifactorial correlation analysis. Cases with PR/CR in the TACE/cisplatin group were significantly more than in TACE group, accompanied by significant declination in FAP. There were no significant differences of AST, ALT, TBIL, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), white blood cells (WBC), red blood cells (RBC), and platelets (PLT) between two groups; 3 cases with IM, one case with UGB and one case with LF were found in the TACE group, but only 1 case with IM was found in the TACE/cisplatin group. In addition, tumor stage was correlated with PR/CR. We concluded that TACE combined with intratumoral injection of cisplatin was more effective than TACE, and with fewer complications and side effects.