Hepatic artery occlusion for liver cancer

The survival of patients with tumour growth in the liver is very restricted. Interruption of the arterial blood supply to the liver is one method used to control tumour growth. This method is based on the findings that liver tumours are mainly nourished by the hepatic artery. Different methods are used in order to interrupt the arterial blood supply to the liver. Hepatic artery ligation (HAL) has been found in animal experiments to be the most reproducible method to temporary retard tumour growth. Survival has been shown to be prolonged in animals with liver tumours subjected to HAL compared with untreated controls. In humans no effect on the survival time has been observed, but the quality of life of these patients has been claimed to be improved especially those with the carcinoid syndrome. Although interruption of the hepatic arterial blood supply has been used clinically for more than 15 years the method is still an experimental procedure. Further clinical research in this field requires properly designed randomized studies.