Efficacy of argon-helium cryosurgical ablation on primary hepatocellular carcinoma: a pilot clinical study.
OBJECTIVE
Recent years, great progression has been made in treating primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with argon-helium cryosurgical ablation. This study was to evaluate its efficacy on unresectable primary HCC.


METHODS
A total of 124 primary HCC patients were divided into early stage, middle stage and advanced stage groups according to BCLC staging classification. Clinical symptoms, tumor size, serum level of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), complications, and survival time were analyzed.


RESULTS
After cryoablation of the tumors, serum level of AFP was reduced in 76 (82.6%) patients, 205 (92.3%) of the 222 tumor lesions were diminished or unchanged. Untill April 2008, 14 patients survived and 110 died. The median survival time was 31.25 months in early stage group, 17.41 months in middle stage group and 6.82 months in advanced stage group.


CONCLUSIONS
For the patients with unresectable HCC, argon-helium cryosurgical ablation has the advantages of few complications and certain efficacy.
Zhou
Lin
L
PLA Postgraduate Medical School, Beijing, PR China.
Yang
Yong-Ping
YP
Feng
Yong-Yi
YY
Lu
Yin-Ying
YY
Wang
Chun-Ping
CP
Wang
Xin-Zhen
XZ
An
Lin-Jing
LJ
Zhang
Xin
X
Wang
Fu-Sheng
FS
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001128:Argon; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D003452:Cryosurgery / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006371:Helium; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000503:physiopathology; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D015996:Survival Rate; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000032:analysis
D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins; D006371:Helium; D001128:Argon