title: A patient with spinal metastasis from hepatocellular carcinoma discovered from neurological findings.
abstract: Although spinal tumors are uncommon, they may reduce survival or cause serious functional disorders in the extremities. Metastatic spinal tumors from malignant tumors can induce symptoms of spinal cord compression, such as paraplegia, quadriplegia, and vesicorectal disturbance, which are aggravated with progression of the diseases and time. We report a patient with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who was suspected of having spinal lesions based on neurological findings, and a metastatic spinal tumor was found by imaging examination. Assuming that metastasis had occurred at the time lumbar pain developed, the patient reached the level of gait disturbance within only 4 mo, showing a rapid advancement of symptoms. If early diagnosis had been possible, treatment could be performed before acute myelopathy progressed to complete paralysis. We speculate that the terminal stage of HCC is not only liver failure associated with intrahepatic lesions but also metastasis to other regions, treatment for individual pathologies therefore, will be needed, which constitutes an important issue.
authors.affiliation: Department of Digestive and Cardiovascular Medicine, Institute of Health Biosciences, Tokushima University School of Medicine, Kuramoto-cho, Tokushima 770-8503, Japan. tamaki@clin.med.tokushima-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Katsuyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tamaki
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: Mari
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Urata
authors.forename: Nao
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kohno
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fukuno
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Nobuya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sano
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary*; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D013125:Spinal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary*