Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 5, 2026
Treatment of Liver Metastases Using an Internal Target Volume Method for Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy
Published on: May 8, 2018
Three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma with inferior vena cava invasion
Hiroshi Igaki1, Keiichi Nakagawa, Kenshiro Shiraishi
1Department of Radiology, The University of Tokyo Hospital, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan. igaki-tky@umin.ac.jp
Background:
Hepatocellular carcinoma with inferior vena cava invasion is a rare but fatal condition of disease progression. The aim of this study was to analyze the results of treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma with inferior vena cava invasion by three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy.
Methods:
From 1990 to 2006, 18 histopathologically confirmed hepatocellular carcinoma patients with inferior vena cava invasion who were unsuitable for surgery were treated by three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy at our hospital with two to four static or dynamic conformal arc fields.
Results:
A median total tumor dose of 50 Gy (range 30-60 Gy) was delivered. The progression-free rate was 91.6% among the patients in whom follow-up computed tomography was obtained. Actuarial survival at 1 year was 33.3%, and the median survival period was 5.6 months.
Conclusions:
Three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy might offer a chance of long survival for a part of the hepatocellular carcinoma patients with inferior vena cava invasion, since a third of such patients survived more than a year. Additional treatments should be considered to prevent distant metastases and hepatic functional deterioration after three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy.
