title: Long term survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma directly invading the gastrointestinal tract: case reports and literature review.
abstract: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) directly invading the gastrointestinal (GI) organs is rare and is associated with poor survival outcome. We report two patients with good long-term outcome following resection of HCC that invaded the stomach and duodenum, respectively. A literature review was conducted to elucidate the course of patients with this pathology. Two cases (57-year-old and 72-year-old males) with enlarged hepatic tumors directly invading the stomach and duodenum underwent hepatectomies with en-bloc resection of the involved organs. Both patients are still alive at 80 and 68 months following the surgery. Our literature review showed that most of the patients with this pathology have manifested, and died of persistent GI bleeding. Patients who were treated surgically had a statistically significant longer survival than those who were treated with non-surgical palliative treatments (P < 0.001). In addition, patients who were treated with surgery with curative intent tend to have a longer survival times than those who were treated with surgery to palliate the bleeding but the difference was not statistically significant (P < 0.174). Removing the tumor completely could significantly prolong the survival of patients with HCC invading the GI tract.
authors.affiliation: Division of General Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ting-Lung
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Anthony Q
authors.initials: AQ
authors.lastname: Yap
authors.forename: Jing-Houng
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Chao-Long
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Shridhar G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Iyer
authors.forename: Jee-Keem
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Low
authors.forename: Chih-Che
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Wei-Feng
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Ta-Yi
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Dibyajyoti
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bora
authors.forename: Chih-Yun
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Chih-Chi
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D006471:Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage; D005770:Gastrointestinal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery; D006498:Hepatectomy; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012196:Review Literature as Topic; D015996:Survival Rate