[Radiation therapy of metastatic sites in hepatoma]

Ten patients with hepatoma who had received radiotherapy for their metastatic sites have been reviewed. In 13 lesions of bone metastasis in 7 patients complete pain relief from 5 lesions (38%) was achieved, while partial relief (54%) was obtained in other lesions. Of 3 patients with a brain metastasis, one attained complete symptomatic improvement with a 65% tumor reduction, and one of the remaining two gained a symptomatic palliation. In a patient with two pulmonary metastases, intraarterial chemotherapy showed a more remarkable effect when treatment was combined with radiotherapy than intraarterial chemotherapy alone. It may be concluded that radiation therapy is effected modality for palliating metastatic lesions of hepatoma.