Objective: To observe the clinical effect of combined treatment of hepatic artery chemoembolization (HACE) and Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) in treating middle-advanced stage liver cancer.
Methods: Sixty patients with middle-advanced stage liver cancer were randomly divided into two groups. The 30 patients in Group A were treated with combined HACE and Chinese herbal medicine (Gan'ai No. I and No. II) and the other 30 in Group B were treated with HACE alone. All patients were followed up for over 3 years.
Results: The 0.5-, 1- and 2-year survival rate in Group A was 76.7%, 56.7% and 30.0% respectively, and those in Group B was 50.0%, 33.3% and 16.7% respectively. The 1- and 2-year recurrence rate in Group A was 43.3%, 66.7% and that in Group B was 66.7%, 90.0% respectively. Moreover, Group A was significantly superior to Group B in tumor shrinking, AFP decreasing and blood leucocyte reducing (P < 0.01), as well as in improving clinical symptoms.
Conclusion: The combined treatment has obvious effect in treating middle-advanced stage liver cancer.