Thalidomide and Chemoembolization With Doxorubicin in Treating Patients With Liver Cancer That Cannot be Removed by Surgery

OBJECTIVES: I. Determine the feasibility and potential activity of thalidomide in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma who are undergoing chemoembolization to predominant tumor masses. II. Determine the toxicity of this regimen of these patients. III. Determine the overall survival of patients treated with this regimen. IV. Determine the serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor, basic fibroblast growth factor, and tumor necrosis factor alpha in patients treated with this regimen. OUTLINE: Patients receive oral thalidomide daily beginning 4 weeks before the first planned chemoembolization procedure. Thalidomide administration is stopped 24 hours before each chemoembolization procedure, and then restarted at 24 hours after completion of each procedure OR when blood counts and levels of bilirubin and transaminases recover, whichever occurs later. Thalidomide treatment continues in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients undergo placement of a visceral arterial catheter. Patients receive doxorubicin as a chemoemulsion via the arterial catheter into 1 hepatic lobe only under angiographic guidance. Immediately after delivery of the chemoemulsion, patients undergo particulate embolization. The opposite lobe, if involved, is treated within 3-5 weeks of treatment of the initial lobe. Patients are reevaluated for repeat chemoembolization within 8-12 weeks of the last chemoembolization. For eligible patients, each lobe is treated separately a second time, in the same sequence, in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 75 patients will be accrued for this study within 18 months.