Interventional Radiology and Hcc

Hepatocellular cancer (hcc) is the 2nd most frequent cause of cancer-related death in men and the 6th in women1. In 2008, the number of new liver cancer cases was estimated to be 748,300 worldwide, and 695,900 deaths were attributed to liver cancer that same year1. Overall, liver transplantation, surgical resection, and locoregional therapies are the treatment options for hcc. However, only a small proportion of patients are suitable for the first two options2. A variety of image-guided interventions now play a vital role in the management of hcc. A multidisciplinary approach to those cases, with the involvement of interventional radiologists, became the main component in treatment success for patients with hcc. This review summarizes and evaluates the role of the various available radiologic interventions in the management of hcc. A systemic search of PubMed, medline, Ovid Medline In-Process, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews using the key words “intervention,” “radiology,” “hepatocellular carcinoma,” “liver biopsy,” “ablation,” “embolization,” “chemo-embolization,” “radio-embolization,” “tissue banking,” or “drug-eluting beads” located all English-language scientific papers for retrieval and review. Cross-references and references from reviewed articles were also located and reviewed (Figure 1). ABSTRACT