Therapeutic efficacy of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization in the treatment of pediatric hepatoblastoma before resection

Abstract:

Objective：To analyze the clinical characteristics of hepatoblastoma（HB） and to explore the therapeutic efficacy of tran－scathtr arterial chemoembolization（TACE） in the treatment of HB. Methods：Clinical records of 5 hospitalized children diagnosed with HB from August 2005 to January 2012 were analyzed respectively. The 5 patients underwent 2-3 times TACE therapy before radical resection. Levels of alpha fetal protein（AFP） and tumor size between pre-TACE and post-TACE were compared. Success rate of radi－cal resection was observed and therapeutic effect was followed up. Results：One week after the last TACE，63.2%-99.7% （82.9% in av－erage） decrease of AFP and 28.7%-76.3%（61.4% in average） shrinkage of tumor size were observed in four cases；69.8% increase of AFP and 84.5% increase of tumor size were observed in one case. Four patients completed the radical resection and were followed up for 6-87 months（35.6 in average） without any tumor till now. However，distant metastasis of 1 case was displayed by CT before resection and the subsequent treatment was given up；the patients’ life was ended one month later. Conclusions：With the advantages of slighter adverse reaction，more successful radical resection and higher event free survival rate，TACE can be used as a primary pre-operative modality for HB which could hardly be resected radically during stageⅠ. Moreover，fluctuations of AFP and tumor size after TACE could reflect the prognosis of HB indirectly.