Are TACE treatments really well tolerated without any sensible reduction of liver function?
Recently, it has been demonstrated that TACE improves survival compared with best supportive care in meta-analyses of randomized trials and in two individual clinical trials. However, although selective TACE is currently widely used, there are no reported extensive data from large series on both short and long term effects of this treatment on liver function. Equally, because the optimal number of sessions is not known, it is debatable if repeated courses of selective TACE may progressively impair liver function and if they are well tolerated or are limited by major side effects. A research article to be published on April 21, 2009 in World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The research group, guided by Dr. Sacco from the Gastroenterology Department of Pisa University Hospital, has performed a prospective cohort study on a large group of patients affected by HCC, prospectively evaluating the short and long term impact of selective TACE on liver function. Side effects
