Gastrointestinal bleeding in cirrhotic patients with hepatocellular carcinoma undergoing intrahepatic artery chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND

Hepatocellular carcinoma in cirrhotic patients increases the risk of variceal bleeding. We sought to characterize bleeding in a cirrhotic patient population undergoing intrahepatic artery chemotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma and to determine the possible influence of this treatment on gastrointestinal bleeding.

METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed 179 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who underwent intrahepatic artery doxorubicin and cis-platinum chemotherapy to determine the incidence of gastrointestinal bleeding and compared them with 434 hepatocellular carcinoma historic controls not undergoing regional chemotherapy.

RESULTS

Of the 179 patients, 27 patients (15.1%) developed upper gastrointestinal bleeding over a mean follow-up of 15.2 months; 18 of the 27 (66.7%) bled from a variceal source and 9 (33.3%) bled from a nonvariceal source: ulcer (n = 6), gastropathy (n = 1), Mallory-Weiss (n = 1), erosive gastritis (n = 1). Twenty-one patients developed bleeding after initiation of chemotherapy (14 variceal and 7 nonvariceal). The number of chemotherapy sessions among patients with variceal and nonvariceal bleeding was similar (2.1 +/- 0.4 and 4.0 +/- 1.2; p = Not significant). Patients with variceal and nonvariceal bleeding were comparable with respect to Child-Pugh classification, pTNM stage, age, time to bleeding, and gender.

CONCLUSIONS

Regional intra-arterial chemotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma is associated with a low risk of variceal bleeding. Nonvariceal sources of upper gastrointestinal bleeding in this population account for a significant component of bleeding episodes.