Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with regional lymph node metastases.
Methods: Forty-eight patients with HCC and regional lymph node metastases were enrolled in this study. The patients were allocated into two groups: Group A (28 patients) underwent TACE for both intrahepatic tumors and lymph node metastasis and Group B (20 patients) received TACE for intrahepatic tumors only.
Results: The patients were followed-up by contrast enhanced CT scan 6-8 weeks after TACE treatment. In Group A, seven and nine patients achieved complete and partial response for lymph node metastasis, respectively, with 1-year and 2-year overall survival rates of 60.7% and 35.7%, respectively. In contrast, none of the patients in Group B achieved a complete response, whereas four patients achieved a partial response. The 1-year and 2-year survival rates for the patients in Group B were 40% and 0%, respectively. The difference in survival between the two groups was statistically significant (P = 0.001).
Conclusions: TACE is an effective treatment to regional lymph node metastasis in HCC without significant side effects and could provide survival benefits to the patients with advanced HCC.
Keywords: TACE; hepatocellular carcinoma; lymph nodes; metastasis.
© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.