Chemoembolization in Treating Patients With Primary Liver Cancer or Metastases to the Liver

OBJECTIVES: * Evaluate time to progression of disease in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma or neuroendocrine hepatic metastases undergoing chemoembolization. * Evaluate tumor response achievable with chemoembolization in this patient population. * Evaluate the toxicities of this treatment in these patients. * Evaluate survival of these patients following this treatment. * Evaluate extrahepatic patterns of failure following chemoembolization, to determine whether intrahepatic progression may be forestalled and survival affected in these patients. * Validate a consistent method of performing chemoembolization in a multicenter setting. OUTLINE: Patients are stratified according to disease (hepatocellular carcinoma vs neuroendocrine hepatic metastases). Patients undergo placement of a visceral arterial catheter. Patients receive doxorubicin, mitomycin, and cisplatin as a chemoemulsion via the arterial catheter into 1 hepatic lobe only. Immediately following delivery of the chemoemulsion, particulate embolization is performed. The opposite lobe, if involved, is treated within 3-5 weeks of treatment of the initial lobe. In the absence of unacceptable toxicity, each involved lobe is treated separately a second time, in the same sequence, beginning 8 weeks after the last lobular chemoembolization. After completion of all protocol therapy, retreatment on study of either lobe is allowed for regrowth, recurrence, or new disease, provided at least 3 months have elapsed since the initial treatment of that lobe. Patients are followed for 5 years. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 19-42 patients will be accrued for this study within 1 year.