The effect on extrahepatic cancer of hepatic artery ligation: an experimental study in rats with liver tumors.
In three different tumor systems (sarcoma, hepatoma and adenocarcinoma) in rats, hepatic artery ligation (HAL) 10 days after tumor cell inoculation in the liver caused liver tumors which when measured 7 days later were statistically significantly smaller than those found in untreated control animals. The day before the experimental procedure the animals were challenged with tumor cell suspensions subcutaneously on the back. In the rats with the adenocarcinoma these subcutaneous tumors were larger in the HAL-group than in the control groups. The same results were obtained in the animals with the sarcoma. No such differences were observed in the rats with the hepatoma. To extrapolate these findings in a rat tumor system to the clinical situation in man should be done with extreme caution. There are subjective clinical impressions in man of a similar type, which may indicate common mechanisms. These findings could indicate that HAL should not be performed in patients with manifest extrahepatic tumor growth and only in controlled studies in patients with occult extrahepatic growth.
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000098:blood supply / Q000473:pathology; D000818:Animals; D006085:Graft Survival; D006499:Hepatic Artery / Q000502:physiology / Q000601:surgery*; D008026:Ligation; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology; D008114:Liver Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012513:Sarcoma, Experimental / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology