Objective: To study the effects of percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) in treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Methods: Blood samples were taken from 9 HCC patients and detected by nested RT-PCR to find out AFPmRNA after PEI treatment 3-5 times within 2 weeks.
Results: Three (44.44%) of 4 patients with AFPmRNA positive turned to be negative after PEI treatment and 1 with AFPmRNA positive (11.11%) lasted within 2 weeks.
Conclusion: PEI may diminish the possibility of distant metastasis of HCC.