Chemoembolization Versus Radioembolization in Treating Patients With Liver Cancer That Cannot Be Treated With Radiofrequency Ablation Or Surgery

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

* Hepatocellular Carcinoma confined to the liver that is unresectable with surgery or unable to be treated with radiofrequency ablation diagnosed by biopsy or imaging criteria (CT/MRI)
* No segmental, lobar, or main portal vein thrombosis as evidenced by CT or MRI imaging

Inclusion Criteria

* Adults \> 18 years old of either gender
* Diagnosis of liver confined HCC confirmed by histology or American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) guidelines \[59,60\] \[appendix A\].
* Lesions \< 1 cm in diameter have a low likelihood of being malignant and should be followed. Lack of growth over 1-2 years suggests it is not HCC.
* AFP \>200 and radiological evidence (arterial hypervascularity) of lesion \> 2 cm does not require biopsy.
* Two imaging modalities (triphasic CT, MRI, ultrasound, angiography) demonstrating "arterial hypervascularity" in the background of cirrhosis does not require biopsy
* One imaging modality with a lesion with arterial hypervascularity with wash out in early or delayed venous phase, does not require a biopsy
* Atypical appearances on imaging requires a biopsy.
* Non-conclusive biopsy requires closer monitoring
* For non-cirrhotics (by biopsy or imaging findings), diagnosis of HCC requires biopsy
* Patients with \<50% liver involvement
* Measurable liver confined disease with bi-dimensional measurements, required within 4 weeks of screening. Lesions reported on imaging as "too small to characterize", abdominal lymph nodes \< 2.0 cm or ascites in the setting of cirrhosis are not considered metastatic disease unless cytology proven.
* No segmental, lobar or main portal vein thrombosis as evidence by cross sectional imaging
* Prior resection permitted, no prior systemic, ablative or infusion therapy permitted
* Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 0, 1, or 2 \[appendix B\]
* Childs score of A or B \[appendix C\]
* Required lab parameters within 28 days of screening
* Serum bilirubin ≤ 2.0 mg/dl (unless segmental infusion can be performed
* AST and ALT ≤ 5 times upper limit of normal (ULN)
* Creatinine ≤ 1.5 times ULN
* Prothrombin time (PT)/ International normalized ratio (INR) ≤ 2.3 or PT ≤ 6 seconds above control. If subjects are being anticoagulated they can participate if proof of no coagulation abnormality existed prior to use of anticoagulants
* Negative serum or urine pregnancy test for females of child bearing potential
* Ability to understand and sign the informed consent; patient must have signed informed consent prior to registration on study
* Women of childbearing potential and sexually active males must use contraception while on study
* Lesions must be treatable angiographically by either radioembolization or chemoembolization.

Exclusion criteria

* Cardiac disease: Congestive heart failure \> class II New York Heart Association (NYHA). Patients must not have unstable angina (angina symptoms at rest) or new onset angina (began within the last 3 months) or myocardial infarction within the past 6 months.
* Patients with infiltrative HCC are not eligible.
* Patients with bulk disease (≥70% tumor replacement of liver) are not eligible.
* Patients with ≥50% tumor replacement of liver, with an albumin \< 3.0 g/dl are not eligible.
* Major surgery within 4 weeks prior to the screening visit
* Active clinically serious infection \> Common Toxicity Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE v 4.0) Grade 2
* Any condition (psychological, physical or use/abuse of substances) which, in the opinion of the principal investigator (PI) or a sub-investigator (sub-I), would possibly endanger the subject during their participation in the study, or allow for non-compliance with the investigational drug and treatment under study.
* Due to the experimental nature of the therapy and the unknown risk to a fetus, pregnant and/or lactating women are not eligible to participate in this study.
* In the opinion of the investigator, patient is not a candidate/lesion not amenable for RFA (e.g. lesion location, shape, abnormal coagulation parameters, multi-focality).