[The chemotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma]

For the difficulty of the giving sufficient dose because of the poor liver function and low sensitivity for the anti-cancer agents, the chemotherapy may not play a central role for the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with liver cirrhosis. However, the chemotherapy must be the one of important possibility as a multimodal treatment for the advanced HCC, for which hepatic resection, TAE and other general therapy would not be effective. The intraarterial perfusion chemotherapy is common as a chemotherapy for HCC and it is not difficult to maintain; the effective rate is not sufficient. Recently, the combination therapy with subcutaneous IFN-alpha and intraarterial 5-FU showed a outstanding effective rate for intractable HCC with Vp3. For the further advance of the HCC treatment and prognosis, this therapy might be the promising treatment modality and expected of the development.