Traitement intra-artériel des tumeurs hépatiques

Even with the positive results of systemic therapies including targeted therapies in the treatment of GI cancers, there remain some reasonable indications of the use of intra-arterial treatments. These indications are even growing during these last 10 years, due to the progresses that have been observed in the field of the intra-arterial hepatic chemotherapy (IAHC) especially with oxaliplatin, or in the development of new catheters that are placed radiologically and new vectors. Two types of new vectors are currently developed. The first one uses microspheres that are loaded with chemotherapy either with adriamycin for HCC, or with irinotecan for liver metastases of colorectal cancer. The second one uses microspheres that are linked to Yttrium90 that is able to destroy the tumoural cells in its neighbouring. These techniques are currently evaluated to define their specific indications. However, it is possible to say that all these locoregional treatments could be very useful in the treatment of refractory liver metastases of colorectal cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma or liver metastases of neuroendocrine tumours.