• Masahiro Kanayama, Hidenari Nagai, and Yasukiyo Sumino.
• Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Omori Hospital, Toho University Medical Center, Tokyo, Japan.
• Cancer Chemother. Pharmacol. 2009 Jun 1; 64 (1): 109-14.

PurposeWe have previously reported that intra-arterial chemotherapy prolongs the survival of patients with advanced HCC (aHCC); however, whether the response to intra-arterial chemotherapy depends on the etiology of underlying liver cirrhosis (LC) is still unknown.AimThe aim of this study was to assess any influences of the etiology of LC on the response to combined intra-arterial chemotherapy for aHCC.MethodsA total of 53 adult Japanese LC patients (46 men and 7 women) with aHCC were treated with combined intra-arterial chemotherapy between 2002 and 2007 at our hospital. All of the patients had a Japan Integrated Staging (JIS) score of 3 or 4. Their tumors were inoperable according to computed tomography findings. Combined intra-arterial chemotherapy was administered via the proper hepatic artery every 5 days for 4 weeks and the chemotherapy regimen was continued for as long as possible.ResultsThere were 15 patients with HBV infection (B-LC group), 29 patients with HCV infection (C-LC group), and nine patients with alcoholic cirrhosis (A-LC group). The percentage of patients with a complete or partial response after 4 weeks of chemotherapy was 0% in the B-LC group versus 31.0% in the C-LC group and 44.4% in the A-LC group. The survival of the A-LC and C-LC groups was significantly longer than that of the B-LC group with the median survival time being 688, 368, and 211 days, respectively.ConclusionsCombined intra-arterial chemotherapy might be more effective for aHCC in patients with A-LC or C-LC than in patients with B-LC.

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