BackgroundThis study explored the effect of liver resection on perioperative circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and found that the prognostic significance of surgery was associated with changes in CTC counts in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).MethodsOne hundred thirty-nine patients with HCC were consecutively enrolled. The time-points for collecting blood were one day before operation and three days after operation. CTCs in the peripheral blood were detected by the CellSearch™ System.ResultsBoth CTC detection incidence and mean CTC counts showed greater increases postoperatively (54%, mean 1.54 cells) than preoperatively (43%, mean 1.13 cells). The postoperative CTC counts increased in 41.7% of patients, decreased in 25.2% of patients and did not change in 33.1% of patients. The increase in postoperative CTC counts was significantly associated with the macroscopic tumor thrombus status. Patients with increased postoperative CTC counts (from preoperative CTC < 2 to postoperative CTC ≥ 2) had significantly shorter disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) than did patients with persistent CTC < 2. Patients with persistent CTC levels of ≥2 had the worst prognoses.ConclusionsSurgical liver resection is associated with an increase in CTC counts, and increased postoperative CTC numbers are associated with a worse prognosis in patients with HCC.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12885-018-4744-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

No abstract

No abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with tumor thrombus extended through the major hepatic veins and inferior vena cava into the right atrium (RA) are rare, and most cases are considered as the advanced stage with a poor prognosis.We report a case of HCC with a tumor thrombus extending into the RA and a tumor thrombus in the portal vein. A literature search for case reports was performed on PubMed.Compared with the published literature, our case is one of the youngest patients, but with the most advanced HCC that invades both the hepatic inflow and outflow vasculature. For this patient, we resected the tumor thrombus in the RA with the use of cardiopulmonary bypass, and then removed the tumor thrombus in the portal vein and ligated the left branch of portal vein. Because of insufficient remnant liver volume, microwave ablation and transcatheter arterial chemoembolization were performed to control the growth of HCC. The patient survived 6 months after surgery.This case suggests that for patients with extension of HCC into the RA and portal vein, surgery is a useful therapeutic modality, even in case that liver tumor cannot be resected.

No abstract

Rationale:Primary hepatic mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma is an extremely rare disease. To the best of our knowledge, only 67 cases had been reported in 39 English literatures to date. The aim of this study was to add a new case of this disease to the literature and to review the current literature.Patient concerns:A 50-year-old man was incidentally identified with a solitary mass of 5 cm in diameter in the left lobe of the liver.Diagnoses:Based on the results of imaging studies, intrahepatic cholangiocellular carcinoma was suspected, and then surgery was performed. Microscopic findings showed that the tumor was a hepatic MALT lymphoma, and immunohistochemical analysis revealed that the lymphoma cells were CD20+, CD79a+, BCL-2+, CD3−, and CD5−.Interventions:The patient received rituximab after surgery.Outcomes:He was free of disease for 13 months at the time of this report.Lessons:Since previously published case reports and our case described nonspecific clinical features of this rare disease, it was usually misdiagnosed before histological confirmation and surgery resection may be a good choice for both diagnosis and local therapy.

No abstract

No abstract