Resumen
Hepatocellular carcinoma treatment options depend on stage of disease. In intermediate stage transarterial chemoembolization with drug-eluting microspheres (DEM-TACE) is recommended. DEM-TACE is simultaneous embolization of tumour feeding arteries and local delivery of anticancer drugs. We assessed real-life practice, safety, toxicity and efficacy of this therapy using new embolization microspheres in 97 patients. Toxicity of the treatment in our study was within or below rates reported so far, and the healthy liver parenchyma, the bile ducts and the portal vein were well preserved when compared with previous study using other type of DEM. Tumour response rate was high, achieving disease control in almost all patients. Hepatocellular carcinoma was controlled during 16.7 months with DEM-TCE as the only treatment. At one year 81% and at two years 66% of patients were alive. Our study showed that DEM-TACE in patients from every-day clinical practice is safe and efficient treatment modality.