Hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy for liver tumor control in a patient with liver metastasis from lung small cell carcinoma, a case report and discussion

Hepatic arterial infusion (HAI) chemotherapy was now used in the treatment of liver metastasis in the patients with colorectal cancer and in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. The blood supplies of cancer cells were from hepatic artery instead of portal system which mainly supply normal liver cells. By delivering chemotherapeutic agents directly to cancer cells through catheter in hepatic artery, it provided much more selective treatment and better local tumor control. The feasibility of liver tumor excision was increased after HAI chemotherapy. Theoretically, HAI chemotherapy may be applied to any tumors that mainly get blood supply from hepatic arteries. However, there were few reports of HAI chemotherapy for metastatic liver tumors from other solid tumors. Our report provided a case treated by HAI chemotherapy for liver metastasis from lung small cell carcinoma. This may give us an idea of extended application of HAI chemotherapy to more solid tumors with liver metastasis.