[Non-vascular interventional radiology--percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) in hepatocellular carcinoma smaller than 3 cm in diameter].

Percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) was carried out for 109 lesions in 85 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) smaller than 3 cm in diameter during the period from Dec. 1982 to Mar. 1989. Therapeutic effect of PEI on HCC was evaluated by ultrasound showing that 15 of 68 HCCs disappeared and the remaining 53 HCCs decreased in size with regression rates ranging from 8% to 88% at 6 months after PEI. Survival rates from PEI calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method showed a 1-yr survival of 92%, a 2-yr survival of 81%, a 3-yr survival of 61%, a 4-yr survival of 55%, and a 5-yr survival of 41%. These survival rates were better than those of patients with HCCs smaller than 3 cm in size who had not received anti-cancer treatment (p less than 0.05).