[How I treat... An hepatocellular carcinoma: role of selective internal radiation therapy with intra-arterial iodine-131].

Hepatocellular carcinoma is a frequent disease, of poor prognosis. Its evolution is often fast and fatal. A majority of patients die within the year following the diagnosis. To date, the surgical resection remains the only treatment considered as curative. However, 80% of the patients are inoperable at the time of the diagnosis. Therefore, the intra-arterial injection (this tumour being hypervascularised) of antitumour agents is an interesting therapeutic option, more particularly the injection of Lipiodol coupled with iodine 131. The present paper describes the conditions when the interstitial curietherapy appears to be a valuable treatment to be considered.