Prospective and randomized controlled study of chemoembolization therapy in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Cooperative Study Group for Liver Cancer Treatment in Shikoku area.

The Cooperative Study Group conducted a study to assess the therapeutic effects of chemoembolization in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using either epirubicin hydrochloride (FARM) or doxorubicin hydrochloride (ADR). A total of 77 patients were enrolled in this study and randomized into 2 groups: 39 patients were treated with a FARM solution as the material for Lipiodol-transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE; FARM group), and 38 patients were treated with an ADR solution as the material for L-TAE (ADR group). For the FARM group, the 1-year survival rate was 69.9% and the 2-year survival rate was 44.5%. For the ADR group, the corresponding survival rates were 74.7% and 44.0%. The differences among the above figures were not statistically significant. As side effects, fever, nausea, and generalized fatigue occurred at almost the same frequencies in the two groups. Changes detected in the liver function and the peripheral blood cell count in both groups were not severe. There was no significant difference between the toxic effects observed in the two groups. In conclusion, there was no significant difference in therapeutic efficacy between the FARM and ADR groups.