HCC cancer

Hi and welcome to the online community

I'm very sorry to hear that your husband has been diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma. It must be a very difficult time for you both.

I didn't have chemotherapy for the type of cancer I had so can't share any experiences with you. I have found this information for you on chemotherapy for liver cancer which I hope will help your husband to understand what to expect.

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I had a form of chemotherapy called chemoembolisation or TACE. You get sedated, a local anaesthetic in your leg and then they send a probe into your femoral artery up the system into the liver. They are somehow able to do this amazing feat by scanning you and seeing everything on a screen. When the probe reaches the lesion, it releases small beads coated with chemotherapeutic agent. These block the blood supply to the cancer and poison it. Time seemed to go quick during the operation but there was some pain caused by the sudden restriction of blood supply. They will then administer painkillers as needed.

After a few hours, the need for those painkillers gets much less. I can't remember how many nights I was there. One or two. Because the chemotherapy drug is only released locally, side effects are much less. There's some nausea (you'll be given anti-sickness tablets, few of which you will need) and some light fever. I was able to take care of myself when I got back home and was back to "normal" in about a week or two. A few months later, when I saw the cancer on an x-ray, it looked like Stalingrad. It had taken a lot of damage and looked dead. There was no further growth.

Longer term, I had the TACE repeated and I had radiation treatment. No new growth for a whole 12 months. Then I was put on the liver transplant list and had a transplant 8 months later. I'm four years post-transplant now. It's not been trouble free put the cancer has not come back.

I wish your husband the best. Obviously, I have only been able to describe my own experience which was local chemotherapy not whole body chemotherapy. The side effects would be worse in that case.