A Case of Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma Resected Repeatedly for the Remnant Liver Tumor

Soichi Narumoto, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Takehide Asano, Matsuo Nagata, Nobuhiro Takiguchi, Osamu Kainuma, Hiroaki Souda, Akihiro Cho, Mikito Mori and Munemasa Ryu

Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Chiba Cancer Center

A 70-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital in April 2003 because of suspicion of recurrence of intrahepatic chalangiocarcinoma (ICC). She had undergone right lobe hepatectomy for the diagnosis of ICC at another hospital in September 2001, and the final diagnosis was t2 n0 m0 stage II. She was referred to our hospital 6 months postoperatively because of suspicion of recurrent disease in the remnant liver. We could not differentiate between recurrence and degeneration due to microwave ablation. After a 1-year follow-up period, CT and MRI images showed growth in size of a tumor at the margin of the remnant liver, and we diagnosed it as recurrence of ICC. In April 2003 hepatic resection of S4+1, extrahepatic bile duct resection, and dissection of the lymph node in the hepatoduodenal ligament was performed. Macroscopic examination revealed a mass-forming type tumor in the cut end of the Glisson's sheath of the right branch of common bile duct. Pathological examination revealed moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma of the liver, and the final diagnosis was recurrence of ICC. There were no signs of recurrent disease in any imaging examinations or serology tests at the 2-year 11-month follow-up examination.

Key words
recurrence, repeated hepatectomy, liver cancer

Reprint requests
Soichi Narumoto Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Chiba Cancer Center
666-2 Nitona-cho, Chuo-ku, Chiba, 260-8717 JAPAN

Accepted
May 31, 2006

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