Stereotactic body radiation therapy for the management of HCC

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignant tumor in China. After years of efforts, there has been great progress in the management of liver cancer, but overall, it is still not ideal. At present, there are many therapies for liver cancer, including surgical resection, transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE), ablation, molecular targeted therapy, stereotactic body radiation therapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and so on. Studies have reported that TACE combined with radiotherapy can shrink the tumor, and some of the remainder will be resectable, resulting in cure. For HCC with tumor thrombus, the tumor thrombus was reduced and then resected after neoadjuvant radiotherapy. The survival time of the patients with portal vein tumor thrombus was significantly longer than that of the patients without neoadjuvant radiotherapy. Large liver cancer will be reduced to small liver cancer after comprehensive treatment, which can be transformed into stereotactic radiotherapy or radiofrequency ablation, and can also be palliative to radical treatment. Individualized and multidisciplinary therapy for liver cancer is the direction of future development. More clinical evidence-based level of radiotherapy treatment of liver cancer should be done in the future.

Keywords

Hepatocellular carcinoma / stereotactic body radiation therapy / tumor thrombus / combined therapy

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