A study published on April 9, 2008 in JAMA reveals that medical scientists got better results to improve the survival time for advanced liver cancer patients by combining one type of chemotherapy with another radio thermal therapy instead of each therapy alone.

Liver cancer is a worldwide increasing disease and it is described as tumors or growth on the liver. Most of these cancers are not diagnosed until advanced stages and at that moment no standard therapy works as treatment

Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE)

The therapy called transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) sedate the progression of tumors and increase survival rates for patients by unifying two effects: that of targeted chemotherapy with blockage of the blood supply to the tumor. Another therapy, radiofrequency thermal ablation (RFA) is a latest technology that is usually performed using a particularly designed probe to apply radiofrequency energy after insertion into the tumor. TACE and RFA have some limitations and neither satisfactorily controls liver cancer tumors that are larger than 1.2 inches (3cm). The survival benefits for TACE used in combination with RFA therapy have not previously been studied.

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