title: Curing hepatocellular carcinomatosis with biologic therapy and surgery: achieving the impossible?
abstract: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that present as hemoperitoneum are uncommon, often recur as peritoneal carcinomatosis, and have poor prognosis. Systemic chemotherapies are minimally effective in advanced HCC and less so as neo-adjuvant therapy. This report describes a 47-year woman with ruptured HCC who developed recurrent carcinomatosis. She received biologically targeted systemic therapy which resulted in significant radiographic tumor response. Salvage surgery revealed complete pathologic response in all tumor nodules, thus the patient was rendered cancer-free.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. methomas@mdanderson.org
authors.forename: Melanie B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tetzlaff
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lozano
authors.forename: Leigh
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Samp
authors.forename: Charles E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gannon
authors.forename: Stanley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hamilton
authors.forename: Jean Nicholas
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Vauthey
authors.forename: Eddie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Abdalla
mesh_terms: D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000628:therapy*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D016879:Salvage Therapy