Radiofrequency / percutaneous ethanol injection versus radiofrequency alone in management of hepato-cellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most senous problemsworldwide. HCC accounts for 90% of primary liver cancers and causes atleast 1 million deaths worldwide per year. It is the 5th most common cancerin the world and the 4th in annular mortality.In the majority of cases, HCC is found in conjunction with cirrhosis ofthe liver. The underlying liver cirrhosis is not only a major obstacle forachieving successful treatment for HCC but also a protruding factorpromoting intrahepatic invasion and metastasis of HCC.Accurate diagnosis of neoplastic lesions by means of one or moreimaging modalities (ultrasound, US; computed tomography, CT; andmagnetic resonance, MR) is mandatory.Surgical resection remains the only potentially curative treatment ofhepatic malignancies. Unfortunately, most primary and secondary hepaticmalignancies are unresectable.Despite the intensive efforts for the development of novel treatmentmodalities for HCC, the prognosis of HCC remains relatively poor.In this thesis we tried to highlight these modalities whether surgical,medical, radiotherapeutic or loco regional treatment.Several minimally invasive interventional techniques anrung atproviding local destruction of the tumor have been developed and clinicallytested over the past few years. These methods include percutaneous ethanolinjection, laser photocoagulation, microwave coagulation, cryoablation, and radiofrequency ablation.