Published online Dec 27, 2014. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v6.i12.844
Revised: October 7, 2014
Accepted: October 28, 2014
Published online: December 27, 2014
Processing time: 122 Days and 22.9 Hours
Core tip: Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) has become widely adopted in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). By using computed tomography-angiography, TACE is capable of performing diagnosis and treatment at the same time. Furthermore, TACE plays an important role in the multidisciplinary treatment for HCC when combined with other treatment. In this review, we first discuss the history of TACE, and then review the previous findings about techniques of achieving a locoregional treatment effect (liver infarction treatment, e.g., ultra-selective TACE, balloon-occluded TACE), and the use of TACE as a drug delivery system for anti-cancer agents (palliative, e.g., platinum complex agents, drug-eluting beads) for multiple lesions.