Chemotherapy is the use of cytotoxic or anticancer drugs to kill cancer cells. The most common ways used to give chemotherapy include the intravenous method where a cannula is placed into the vein using a needle or the chemotherapy drugs can be taken orally by the patient. Chemotherapy may be given after surgery to kill any remaining cancer cells.
Liver cancer resists most if the drugs used in chemotherapy. There are some chemotherapy drugs that are seen to be most effective in the case if liver cancer big even these drugs shrink only a small portion of the tumors and the responses of these drugs often don’t last very long.
Hepatic Artery infusion
Hepatic artery infusion is mainly done for liver cancer because of the poor response systemic chemotherapy has. In the procedure of a hepatic artery infusion the chemo drugs are directly connected to the hepatic artery. The chemo is given directly to liver but the liver breaks it down before it reaches the other parts of the body. This kind of a procedure allows more chemo to reach the tumor without increasing side effects. Some studies have found that the hepatic artery infusion is the best method to shrink tumors but more research is needed in the area. However, this method requires a catheter to be placed surgically in the hepatic artery and some liver cancer patients are unable to tolerate the surgery.