[Sustained clinical response of large hepatocellular carcinoma after chemoembolization with pirarubicin, amiodarone and Lipiodol].

Although chemoembolization is known to be an effective palliative treatment in hepatocellular carcinoma, it has a limited effect in large tumors. We report the case of a patient with a large hepatocellular carcinoma of the left liver who had a significant and sustained clinical response after six sessions of chemoembolization with a pirarubicin/amiodarone/lipiodol emulsion. Pirarubicin is an anthracycline which penetrates faster than doxorubicin into cancer cells. Amiodarone is a multidrug resistance inhibitor. Polysorbate 80, an excipient of injectable amiodarone stabilizes the anthracycline/lipiodol emulsion. The clinical efficacy of this new formulation could be evaluated in a phase II clinical trial.