Abstract
First Department of Surgery. Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine Department of Surgery. Takikawa Municipal Hospital The experience of five patients with metastatic liver cancer who received percutaneous ethanol injection therapy (PEIT) is reported. Efficacy of this therapy in prolonging life was observed in 4 of the cases. In these 4 cases, ethanol injection into the tumors was performed without resistance, and subsequent tumor necrosis was evident on diagnostic images. PEIT was ineffective in the remaining cases. Ethanol injection into the tumor was met with great resistance, because the tumor contained large amounts of connective tissue. We concluded that the effect of PEIT on metastatic liver cancer depends on the histopathlogical characteristics of the lesion.
