A 67-year-old man with hepatitis C virus infection and histological features of chronic active hepatitis was treated with human recombinant interferon alpha-2b. He responded successfully to interferon with normalization of serum alanine aminotransferase and continuous eradication of hepatitis C virus. However, 4.5 years after the end of interferon therapy, hepatocellular carcinoma, 20 mm in diameter, was detected by routine ultrasonographic screening. The patient underwent surgical treatment for resection of the hepatocellular carcinoma. The non-cancerous liver tissue was histologically normal. This suggests that patients who have shown a complete response to interferon therapy for chronic hepatitis C should be followed up closely.

The present study revealed significant differences in the results of estimation of testicular volume among the ten investigators, but intra-investigator variation was not considerable. Improved training and proper standardization of the measurement will be necessary before starting a multi-center study based on an andrological examination.

Solitary fibrous tumor (SFT) rarely occurs in the kidneys, and only one reported case of renal SFT has shown distant metastasis. We report the second case of renal SFT exhibiting distant metastasis. A 48-year-old man was referred to our hospital because of a right renal mass. An abdominal CT scan detected a large renal tumor, which was suspected to be a renal cell carcinoma. Right radical nephrectomy was performed, and the tumor was found to measure 28 × 18 × 10 cm. The pathological diagnosis was benign solitary fibrous tumor of the kidney. Eight years after the operation, lung and liver metastases developed. Pulmonary segmentectomy and partial hepatectomy were performed. The pathological diagnoses of these resected tissue specimens were compatible with benign SFT.

A 68-year-old man presented with multiple hepatocellular carcinoma, which was considered to be unresectable at the first admission in January 1994. Pathological diagnosis was made by biopsy of the one lesion among them. From January 1994 to December 1997, 10 transarterial chemoembolizations and six percutaneous ethanol injection therapies were performed on the tumours in the cirrhotic liver. In February 1998 the tumour situated in the right lobe began to increase in size. The maximum tumour diameter was 6.3 cm measured by computed tomography (CT). In the beginning of May 1998 moderate ascites was present and mild hepatic encephalopathy was noticed. The patient was in the terminal stage of hepatocellular carcinoma and no further treatment was possible at that time. However, serum alpha-fetoprotein and protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonist II dramatically decreased in June 1998. The CT scan also showed that the tumour had completely regressed without specific treatment. In February 1999 a new biopsy-proven hepatocellular carcinoma, 2 cm in diameter, developed in the lateral segment of the liver. It was well treated by percutaneous ethanol injection therapy. The patient was alive in good condition without any symptoms or tumour recurrence in June 1999. It was concluded that a rare case of spontaneous regression of hepatocellular carcinoma had occurred.

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