Hepatic Arterial Infusion of Polyethylene Glycol Drug-eluting Beads for Primary and Metastatic Liver Cancer Therapy.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Recently, there has been the launch of the new Polyethylene glycol (PEG) drug-eluting beads (LifePearl®) for transarterial chemoembolization. Their innovation is that PEG guarantees more compressibility, elasticity and maximizes beads' suspension time. We applied these beads for hepatic intra-arterial infusion of irinotecan or doxorubicin for the therapy of primary and metastatic liver cancer.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: We treated 20 consecutive patients, affected by unresectable primary liver cancer (PLC) or hepatic metastases (refractory to chemotherapy) using chemoembolization with doxorubicin or irinotecan pre-loaded Lifepearls.

RESULTS: Tumor response rate was >80% in most patients with 63% of complete and 37% of partial response. We observed no complications during the chemoembolization and no severe general drug-related side-effects.

CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that chemoembolization with LifePearl® is efficacious and safe for the treatment of liver cancer as indicated by good tolerability, quality of life and high tumor response.