[Chemoembolization of primary liver cancer using epirubicin-lipiodol]

The double supply of the liver allows one to perform specific embolisation of liver carcinomas since these are mostly supplied arterially. According to their occlusion characteristics--central, peripheral, capillary--different embolising materials are suitable for tumour embolisation under varying conditions. Oily substances cause capillary occlusion and can be used in conjunction with chemotherapeutic agents. This study deals with the results from lipiodol-epirubicin embolisation in 25 patients with hepatocarcinomas and cholangiocarcinomas. In a three-and-a-half year follow-up period 16 of these 25 patients died, maximum survival time being 28.4 months. Survival varied from 9.2 to 28.4 months compared with a survival time of 2-8 months in untreated patients. In this case hypervascular tumours have a better prognosis than the rarer hypovascular tumours because of improved deposition and activity of the chemotherapeutic agent.