Clinicopathologic features of patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma who are seropositive for alpha-fetoprotein-L3 and those with combined hepatocellular and cholangiocarcinoma.
BACKGROUND
Some patients who are seropositive for lectin-reactive alpha-fetoprotein (AFP-L3) have intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC). There have been no studies regarding the features of ICC patients seropositive for AFP-L3. Thus, the purpose of the present paper was to compare the features of ICC patients from the viewpoint of two different tumor markers, AFP-L3 and carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9.


METHODS
The ICC patients who underwent hepatectomy (n = 51) were divided into three groups, and their clinicopathologic features were compared: (i) group A, seropositive for AFP-L3 >or= 15%; (ii) group B, seropositive for CA 19-9 >or= 37 U/mL; and (iii) group C, seronegative for both AFP-L3 and CA 19-9. The features of combined hepatocellular and cholangiocarcinoma (n = 11) were also studied.


RESULTS
Group A had a higher positivity rate for hepatitis viruses than group B (60%vs 20%, P < 0.05). More patients in group A were misdiagnosed as having hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) at surgery (70%vs 5.7%, P < 0.001) who also had chronic liver disease (80%vs 25.7%, P < 0.01) than in group B. Seven, 10 and 11 of the 11 patients with combined hepatocellular and cholangiocarcinoma were seropositive for AFP-L3, CA 19-9 and hepatitis viruses, respectively. Ten were diagnosed as having HCC at surgery and nine had chronic liver disease.


CONCLUSIONS
Patients with ICC seropositive for AFP-L3 and those with combined hepatocellular and cholangiocarcinoma have features close to HCC. The present study has, for the first time, identified a subgroup of ICC patients, seropositive for AFP-L3, having features close to HCC that are very different from those of the classical ICC patients seropositive for CA 19-9.
Okuda
Hiroaki
H
Institute of Gastroenterology, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Tokyo, Japan. ohiroaki@za.cyberhome.ne.jp
Shiratori
Keiko
K
Yamamoto
Masakazu
M
Takasaki
Ken
K
Nakano
Masayuki
M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001650:Bile Duct Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D001653:Bile Ducts, Intrahepatic / Q000473:pathology*; D018395:CA-19-9 Antigen / Q000378:metabolism; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D018281:Cholangiocarcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000378:metabolism*
D018395:CA-19-9 Antigen; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins