Journal of Liver Cancer最新文献

The current Food and Drug Administration-approved systemic treatments for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) include multikinase inhibitors (tyrosine kinase inhibitor [TKI]) and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Among ICIs, nivolumab is used as second-line therapy for advanced HCC after sorafenib failure or patient intolerance. In this case, a patient with infiltrative HCC and portal vein tumor thrombosis was treated with hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) and radiation therapy. New lung metastasis developed after HAICs; thus, lenvatinib treatment was initiated. However, the disease progressed. Thereafter, sorafenib treatment was initiated but he developed intolerance, with grade 3 sorafenib-related diarrhea. Subsequently, nivolumab was administered as rescue therapy. He demonstrated a partial response to nivolumab after the third treatment and viable HCCs in the lungs and liver completely disappeared after the 24th treatment. These findings suggest that nivolumab could be used as an effective rescue therapy for advanced HCC progression after TKI treatment.

Traditionally, liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma with portal vein tumor thrombosis is not recommended. However, with recent developments in locoregional therapies for hepatocellular carcinoma, more aggressive treatments have been attempted for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Recently, various studies on locoregional therapies for downstaging followed by living donor liver transplantation reported inspiring overall survival and recurrence-free survival of patients. These downstaging procedures included three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy, trans-arterial chemoembolization, stereotactic body radiation therapy, trans-arterial radioembolization, hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy and combinations of these therapies. Selection of the optimal downstaging protocol should depend on tumor location, biology and background liver status. The risk factors affecting outcome include pre-downstaging alpha-fetoprotein values, delta alpha-fetoprotein values, disappearance of portal vein tumor thrombosis on imaging and meeting the Milan criteria or not after downstaging. For hepatocellular carcinoma with portal vein tumor thrombosis, downstaging procedure with liver transplantation in mind would be helpful. If the reaction of the downstaged tumor is good, liver transplantation may be performed.

Several molecular-targeted agents have been tested as first- or second-line therapies for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) but failed to improve clinical outcomes; sorafenib has been the only approved systemic agent for treating HCC for almost 10 years. Regorafenib resulted in a significant improvement in overall survival and thus was approved for HCC patients previously treated with sorafenib. Subsequently, cabozantinib and ramucirumab demonstrated superior overall survival compared with placebos in phase III clinical trials. Immune checkpoint inhibitors such as nivolumab with or without ipilimumab and pembrolizumab are also available in some countries for patients who are unresponsive to sorafenib. Some second-line agents are available for patients who are unresponsive to sorafenib; however, little is known about the considerations for selecting appropriate second-line systemic agents. Hence, this study aimed to review the current and future perspectives of second-line systemic agents.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with distant metastasis is an absolute contraindication for liver transplantation (LT). However, it is still unclear whether LT is feasible or acceptable in such patients, albeit after being treated with a multidisciplinary approach and after any metastatic lesion is ruled out. We report one such successful treatment with living donor LT (LDLT) after completely controlling far-advanced HCC with inferior vena cava tumor thrombosis and multiple lung metastases. The patient has been doing well without HCC recurrence for eight years since LDLT. The current patient could be an anecdotal case, but provides a case for expanding LDLT indications in the context of advanced HCC and suchlike.

Background/aims: Because hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication has been known to play an important role in cancer recurrence after curative treatment of HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we examined whether treatment based on nucleos(t)ide analogues (NAs) might decrease the recurrence rate and improve patient survival.

Methods: The retrospective cohort study enrolled 73 patients with chronic hepatitis B who were treated with transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) with curative intent for HCC. Among those, 30 and 43 patients were treated with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) and entecavir (ETV), respectively.

Results: Of the 73 patients, 51 experienced HCC recurrence, and 14 patients were dead during a follow-up of 73±34 months. Multivariate analyses showed that tumor size (hazard ratio [HR], 1.590; 95% confidence-interval [CI], 1.106-2.285; P=0.012) and Child-Pugh class B (vs. class A/non cirrhosis; HR, 5.794; 95% CI, 2.311-14.523; P=0.001) was significantly associated with HCC recurrence, and Child-Pugh class B (HR, 7.357; 95% CI, 2.100-25.777; P=0.002) was an independent unfavorable prognostic factor for survival. During NAs therapy, TDF was superior to ETV for complete viral response at 1 year after the date of combination of TACE and RFA (P=0.016). However, the risks of HCC recurrence and survival were not significantly different between those treated with TDF versus ETV.

Conclusions: TDF was superior to ETV for achieving complete viral response. However, the recurrence and mortality after TACE and RFA for HBV-related HCC were not significantly different between patients treated with TDF versus ETV.

Sorafenib is the oldest first line systemic treatment in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and has been used exclusively for nearly 10 years. The superiority of administering a combination of atezolizumab plus bevacizumab (AteBeva) compared to sorafenib as first line systemic treatment for unresectable HCC was recently proven during the IMbrave150 Phase III randomized trial. While clinicians can expect improved responses and treatment outcomes due to the good results of the IMbrave 150 trial, they must also consider that atezolizumab can cause various immune-related adverse events (IrAEs). Based on the above suggestions, we herein present a case of HCC with lymph node metastasis who achieved complete remission following treatment with AteBeva and developed an IrAE (adrenal insufficiency). Further study of real-life data regarding combination therapy with AteBeva is needed to manage patients with advanced HCC.

The clinical efficacy of local ablative treatment for oligometastasis is widely accepted in most cancers. However, due to limited data, this has not been the case for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here, we report a case of pulmonary oligometastasis of a huge HCC that was treated by multimodality with liver-directed concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) plus subsequent resection of the primary lesion and local ablative radiotherapy (RT) for subsequent lung oligometastatic lesions. In this patient, liver-directed CCRT induced significant tumor shrinkage with compensatory hypertrophy of the non-tumor liver, followed by curative resection. Surgical resection of the first and second pulmonary metastatic lesions as well as local ablative RT of the third lesion achieved complete tumor regression, which led to long-term survival of 6 years. Therefore, the active use of local ablative RT requires full consideration in cases of oligometastatic HCC.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) primarily originates in the liver with hepatic differentiation. However, HCCs are not homogenous, and approximately 35% of HCC cases are classified as histopathological variants that present distinct pathologic characteristics. In particular, the lymphocyte-rich variant is the rarest subtype accounting for less than 1% of HCCs, which is not well known to date about molecular features and pathophysiology. Herein, we present a case of a patient who was suspected of metastatic liver cancer and confirmed as lymphocyte-rich HCC pathologically. A 78-year-old woman who underwent a right hemicolectomy for colon cancer was referred to our hospital for a newly detected liver mass. We could not make a decision because of insufficient evidence for diagnosis from imaging studies. After resection, we found that it was a lymphocyte-rich HCC. The pathologic features and prognostic trends of this subtype are also discussed.

Background/aims: Multiplication of α-fetoprotein, des-γ-carboxy prothrombin, and tumor volume (ADV score) is a surrogate marker for post-resection prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aimed to validate the predictive power of the ADV score-based prognostic prediction model for patients with solitary huge HCC.

Methods: Of 3,018 patients, 100 patients who underwent hepatic resection for solitary HCC ≥13 cm between 2008 and 2012 were selected.

Results: The median tumor diameter and tumor volume were 15.0 cm and 886 mL, respectively. Tumor recurrence and overall survival (OS) rates were 70.7% and 66.0% at one year and 84.9% and 34.0% at five years, respectively. Microvascular invasion (MVI) was the only independent risk factor for disease-free survival (DFS) and OS. DFS and OS, stratified by ADV score with 1-log intervals, showed significant prognostic contrasts (P=0.007 and P=0.017, respectively). DFS and OS, stratified by ADV score with a cut-off of 8-log, showed significant prognostic contrasts (P=0.014 and P=0.042, respectively). The combination of MVI and ADV score with a cut-off of 8-log also showed significant prognostic contrasts in DFS (P<0.001) and OS (P=0.001) considering the number of risk factors. Prognostic contrast was enhanced after combining the MVI and ADV score.

Conclusions: The prognostic prediction model with the ADV score could reliably predict the risk of tumor recurrence and long-term patient survival outcomes in patients with solitary huge HCC ≥13 cm. The results of this study suggest that our prognostic prediction models can be used to guide surgical treatment and post-resection follow-up for patients with huge HCCs.

Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is a useful treatment option for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). TACE can particularly be used as a treatment for localized HCC, where surgical resection is impossible due to decreased liver function. However, TACE is associated with several complications, including vascular complications, liver failure, non-target embolization, infection, and death. The main risk factor for complications after TACE is decreased liver function. There have been only few reports of brain abscesses after TACE that are difficult to be distinguished from hepatic encephalopathy. Here, we report a rare case of brain abscess caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae that occurred after TACE.