Peripheral blood determination of AFP mRNA in patients with recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) undergoing percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) / 中国普通外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the effect of PEI on disseminating HCC cells in the peripheral blood in patients with recurrent HCC. MethodsWe examined blood samples from 29 recurrent HCC patients by nested RT-PCR for the determination of AFP?mRNA before and 1, 2, 3 and 4 weeks after PEI.ResultsBefore PEI 14 (48%) patients out of the 29 cases with recurrent HCC were positive with AFP?mRNA. Four weeks after a course of PEI only 2 cases (7%) remained AFP?mRNA positive.ConclutionsPEI effectively eradicating disseminating HCC cells in the peripheral blood shows a favourable potential for the treatment of recurrent HCC.