Two rare metachronous metastases of hepatocellular carcinoma after liver transplantation.
A 59-year-old male with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) due to liver cirrhosis caused by the hepatitis C virus underwent cadaveric whole liver transplantation. Two years later, he had a metastatic HCC in the superior mediastinum. Over the following postoperative year, he underwent transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) for 4 tumors in the implanted liver. In the third post-TACE month, he was emergently hospitalized due to intracerebral hematoma with a tumor invading the bone in the medial frontal segment. He underwent emergency intracranial tumorectomy and hemorrhage removal. The histopathologic diagnosis was metastatic HCC. He regained consciousness as well as the ability to speak and to feed himself, resulting in an improved quality of life. The incidence of HCC recurrence after liver transplantation is observed in approximately 8% to 11% of selected cases, with frequent relapses observed in the implanted liver, bones, adrenal glands, and lungs. Mediastinal and intracranial metastases from HCC post-liver transplantation are very rare.
1 Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Fukuoka University School of Medicine, Jonan-ku, Japan.
Satoshi
S
Shinya
Tomoaki
T
Noritomi
Yasushi
Y
Yamauchi
Takamistu
T
Sasaki
Yoshihiro
Y
Hamada
Yuichi
Y
Yamashita
D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000556:secondary* / Q000628:therapy* / Q000821:virology; D016461:Chemoembolization, Therapeutic; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000821:virology; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy* / Q000821:virology; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012888:Skull Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery