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

Summary
Aliberti C, Carandina R, Sarti D, Mulazzani L, Catalano V, Felicioli A, Coschiera P, Fiorentini G, Anticancer Res. 2016 Jul;36(7):3515-21.

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 andmetastatic liver cancer.

Patients and methods

We treated 20 consecutive patients, affected by unresectable primary liver cancer (PLC) or hepaticmetastases (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.

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