Research progress in the application of drug eluting beads transarterial chemoembolization as bridge therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma before liver transplantation / 国际生物医学工程杂志

ABSTRACT

The aims of bridging treatments before liver transplantation is to prevent the tumor from progressing to exceed the liver transplantation standards during the waiting period of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and to downgrade the HCC to meet the liver transplantation standards so as to reduce the postoperative tumor recurrence rate. Conventional transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (cTACE) has the disadvantages of large systemic adverse reactions and great influence on liver function. Drug-eluting beads (DEBs) are a new type of embolization material. Compared with cTACE, DEB-TACE can continuously and stably release chemotherapeutic drugs locally on the tumor for several weeks. Moreover, the concentration of the chemotherapeutic drug in the blood circulation is extremely low, which can effectively avoid systemic reactions caused by chemotherapy drugs, and is more effective in thebridging treatments of liver transplantation. In this paper, the current status and research progress of DEB-TACE treatment before liver transplantation for liver cancer were reviewed.