RESEARCH ARTICLE Overall survival in respons r

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recurs frequently after curative treatment [1-4]. Advanced HCC sometimes causes macroscopic hepatic vascular invasion, including portal vein tumor thrombosis (PVTT) in the main portal trunk or the first branch and venous thrombosis in the hep-atic vein trunk or inferior vena cava. These conditions can be life threatening, and the prognosis of patients with PVTT remains very poor, with a median survival of only approximately 3 months without treatment [5-8]. There-fore, identification of effective treatments that are not asso-ciated with significant adverse effects would be of benefit for this patient population. Transarterial chemoemboliza-tion (TACE) is one treatment for advanced HCC and is as-sociated with an increased risk of ischemic necrosis of the liver and of treatment-related death in patients with PVTT. Therefore, this strategy is limited to a select group of pa-tients with good hepatic function, patients with PVT