Administration of tegafur/uracil after transcatheter arterial embolization inhibit plasma vascular endothelial growth factor level and local recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

4153 Background: Transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) of the hepatic artery has been accepted as an effective treatment for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, it is difficult to achieve complete tumor necrosis by TAE alone, and embolized vessel recanalization and collateral circulation formation are the main factors of HCC growth and recurrence after TAE. On the other hand, recent studies have shown that Uracil/Tegafur (UFT) inhibits tumor angiogenesis. In the present study, therefore, we examined whether administration of UFT after TAE inhibit of plasma Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) level and prevent recurrence of HCC or not. Methods: Twenty patients with advanced HCC, who had been repeated only TAE therapy more than two times, were enrolled. After obtaining informed concent, UFT (300mg/day) was randomly administrated to ten patients (UFT group) on the 3day after TAE, and not administrated to ten patients (control group). Peripheral blood samples were taken from all patients before and 1, 3, 7 and 14days after TAE. Plasma VEGF level was measured with ELISA. And period of local recurrence were compared between UFT group and control group. Results: Plasma VEGF levels in the control group significantly increased and reached the peak value on the 7 to 14day after TAE(p<0.01). In contrast, there were no significant increases of plasma VEGF levels in the UFT group. On the other hand, the period of recurrence in the control group was 69 days on average. In the UFT group, the average period of recurrence was significantly extended(127days, p<0.05), and there were three patients in the UFT group without local recurrence during the follow-up period. Conclusions: These data suggest that UFT administration after TAE improve local recurrence of HCC by inhibition tumor angiogenesis. No significant financial relationships to disclose.