How is liver cancer interventional treatment done? Interventional treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma is the common name of transhepatic artery chemoembolization (TACE) procedure. (Broadly speaking, interventional procedures should also include hepatic artery embolization, local ablation, etc.). Before the interventional treatment, the doctor needs to understand the location and blood supply of the tumor in the patient’s liver through CT, MRI and other imaging examinations. In the interventional treatment, the doctor makes a small incision through the femoral artery at the root of the patient’s thigh, and under X-ray fluoroscopy, a catheter is inserted retrograde along the inferior cavernous artery to the abdominal trunk artery up to the hepatic artery. The doctor will then inject some contrast to reconfirm the intrahepatic tumor and look for possible further vascular paths as close to the tumor as possible. Afterwards, the doctor will inject iodine oil as well as anti-tumor drugs into the tumor vessels. After the interventional treatment, the patient will usually experience symptoms such as pain and fever of varying degrees. About one month after the treatment, the patient needs to review the CT film, so that the doctor can understand the efficacy of the treatment and determine the next treatment plan. What are the commonly used embolic agents for hepatocellular carcinoma interventional treatment? What are their advantages and disadvantages? Embolic agents commonly used in liver cancer intervention include iodine oil, gelatin sponge, drug-eluting microspheres, etc. Among them, iodine oil is the most commonly used embolic agent. Among them, iodine oil is the most commonly used embolic agent, with small particle diameter, which can fully embolize the blood supplying vessels of tumor, and the treatment reaction is lighter, but the drug does not stay in the tumor for a long time; gelatin sponge is generally used for embolization of larger vessels, especially better than the arteriovenous fistula caused by portal vein embolism of hepatocellular carcinoma, and is also the embolic agent when the nodule of hepatocellular carcinoma ruptures and bleeds, but its disadvantage is that the ischemic inflammation is obvious after embolization, and the patient reacts more. The disadvantage is that the ischemic inflammation is obvious after embolization, and the patient’s reaction is larger; drug-eluting microspheres are not much used in China, and the anti-tumor efficacy is better than conventional intervention. Why should intervention be combined with other methods? What kind of patients are they suitable for? Interventional therapy is a kind of control therapy. Compared with radical therapy such as surgical resection and radiofrequency ablation, interventional therapy can only control tumor growth for a certain period of time. Interventional embolization of blood vessels causes tumor ischemia, but as time passes, tumor will form new blood vessels, causing recurrence and aggravation of the disease. Therefore, interventions are often performed several times or combined with other treatments in clinical practice. Although it has its shortcomings, intervention is the best choice for unresectable liver cancer at present. The following are the indications for intervention in the “Diagnostic and Treatment Standard for Hepatocellular Carcinoma” issued by the Ministry of Health in 2011: 1. (4) Failure of surgery or recurrence after surgery; (5) Liver function classification (Child-Pugh) grade A or B, ECOG score 0-2; (6) Bleeding from ruptured liver tumor and bleeding from portal hypertension caused by hepatic artery – portal vein static shunt. 2.Application before hepatic tumor resection can shrink the tumor and facilitate the second stage resection, and at the same time can clarify the number of lesions; 3.Small hepatocellular carcinoma, but not suitable or unwilling for surgery, local radiofrequency or microwave ablation treatment; 4.Control of local pain, bleeding and embolization of arteriovenous impotence; 5.After hepatic cancer resection, to prevent recurrence. Contraindications to intervention: (1) Severe liver dysfunction (Child-Pugh grade C); (2) Severely reduced coagulation function that cannot be corrected; (3) Portal vein trunk completely embolized by cancer embolism, and few collateral vessels are formed; (4) Combined active infection and cannot be treated simultaneously; (5) Extensive distant metastasis of tumor, estimated survival <3 months; (6) Cachexia or multi-organ failure (7) tumor proportion of the whole liver ≥ 70% of the cancer foci; if liver function is basically normal, a small amount of iodine oil emulsion can be considered for fractional embolization; (8) peripheral blood leukocytes and platelets significantly reduced, leukocytes <3.0×109/L (not absolutely contraindicated, such as hypersplenism, different from chemotherapeutic leukopenia), platelets <60×109/L.