(April 8, 2008 - Insidermedicine) A combination treatment that bombards advanced liver cancer with chemotherapy as well as techniques that block the blood supply to the tumor and burn away tumor tissue may provide patients with several more months of life, according to research in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Here are some facts about liver cancer:

•    Most people diagnosed with liver cancer will die of the disease within a year.

•    About three-quarters of cases of liver cancer occur in Southeast Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.

•    Infection with the hepatitis B or C viruses is a common cause of liver cancer. Other contributors include chronic alcohol abuse and exposure to certain medications and chemicals.

Researchers out of Shandong University in China randomly assigned nearly 300 patients with advanced liver cancer to one of three treatments. The first group received transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE), in which a catheter delivers chemotherapy right to the tumor and the blood vessels feeding the tumor are blocked. The second group received radiofrequency thermal ablation (RFA), in which the tumor tissue is burned away. The third group received a combination of both treatments.

At follow-up, 84% of patients in each of the single therapy groups had died, compared with 69% of those who received combination therapy. In addition, the average survival time was 24 months for those given TACE, 22 months for those given RFA, and 37 months for those who received both treatments. The lower death rate in the combined therapy group was attributable to reduced progression of their cancer.

While combining TACE and RFA remains a controversial treatment for advanced liver cancer, today’s research demonstrates that it may have the potential to lengthen patients’ lives by as much as a year or more.

For Insidermedicine in Depth, I'm Dr. Susan Sharma.