Sirolimus in the Treatment for Propranolol-resistant Infantile Hepatic Hemangioendothelioma

According to the World Health Organization(WHO) classification of digestive system tumors in the fourth edition in 2010, infantile hepatic hemangioendothelioma (IHHE) is an infantile hemangioma involving the liver. It is a benign tumor, which can be subgrouped into focal, multifocal, and diffusing in children, as well as combining vascular malformations of the skin, brain, digestive tract and other organs.Since 2008, propranolol has been used for the treatment of hemangioma, and some researchers have also started to report the use of propranolol for the treatment of infantile hepatic hemangioma in children.And more and more clinicians unanimously recommend propranolol as first-line medication for the treatment of IHHE.However, there are few solutions to propranolol-resistant IHHE. Sirolimus is a serine/threonine kinase which plays a pivotal role in cell mortality, angiogenesis and cell growth. Sirolimus can be used in patients with vascular malformations such as hemangiomas. Children with vascular malformations received 0.1mg/kg of sirolimus orally every day and maintained the blood concentration at 8-15ng/ml. The lesions gradually disappear with time going on. Therefore, sirolimus can be used as a second-line medicine for refractory hemangioma and vascular malformation.Interestingly, the investigator's previous study which is retrospective analysis of 30 patients has indicated the effective rate of propranolol alone in treating infantile hepatic endothelial tumor (IHHE) was 57.7%, while that of sequential treatment combined with sirolimus was 84.6%.So, this clinical trial is going to explore the efficacy of sequential treatment of sirolimus to refractory IHHE patients resistant with propranolol,to improve the therapeutic effect,furtherly, reduce the side effects of traditional treatment methods (hormones, interferon), as well as the number of operations and interventions and to provide a clinical guide for the novel therapeutics model of propranolol combined with sirolimus for sequential treatment of infantile hepatic hemangioendothelioma.