Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical effect of iodine-125 seed implantation combined with chemotherapy in patients with primary liver cancer and the effect on peripheral blood Th1/Th2 cells. METHODS: A total of 136 patients with primary liver cancer from April 2017 to June 2018 were selected as subjects and randomly divided into the control group and observation group with 68 cases in each group. The control group was treated with chemotherapy, and the observation group was treated with iodine-125 seed implantation on the basis of the control group. After 3 months of treatment, the curative effect was investigated. Serum tumor markers, peripheral blood Th1/Th2 cells, and side effects and recurrence rate were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: The levels of serum tumor markers in both groups at 3 months after treatment were lower than before treatment (P < 0.05). Three months after treatment, the levels of tumor markers AFP, AFP-L3, and GP73 in the observation group were 14.61 ± 3.49 μg/L, 3.29 ± 0.41 ng/mL, and 51.24 ± 4.51 μg/L, respectively, which were lower than those in the control group, 32.53 ± 4.59 μg/L, 5.63 ± 0.63 ng/mL, and 71.52 ± 6.05 μg/L (P < 0.05). At 3 months after treatment, the level of including interleukin-2 (IL-2) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in Th1 cells of the observation group was higher than that of the control group (P < 0.05), whereas the levels of IL-4, IL-6, and IL-10 in Th2 cells were lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05). There was no statistical significance in the incidence of leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, and gastrointestinal reactions between the two groups (P > 0.05). The recurrence rate of the observation group at 12, 24, and 36 months after treatment was lower than that of the control group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Iodine-125 seed implantation combined with chemotherapy in patients with primary liver cancer can reduce the level of serum tumor markers, improve the level of peripheral blood Th1/Th2 cells, and reduce the recurrence rate of patients without increasing the incidence of side effects, which is worthy of promoting the application of iodine-125 seed implantation.