Spontaneous Regression of Sarcomatous Hepatocellular Carcinoma -Report of a Case-

Kazuya Matsunaga, Katsuhiko Uesaka, Atsuyuki Maeda, Hideyuki Kanemoto and Hiroyoshi Furukawa*

Division of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery and Division of Diagnostic Radiology*, Shizuoka Cancer Center Hospital

A 71-year-old woman treated for hepatitis C liver cirrhosis was diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) 11 cm in size in the lateral hepatic segment showing extrahepatic growth with a peritoneal disseminated nodule. Following trancatheter arterial embolization elsewhere, she was referred to us and underwent partial resection of the left lateral segment with combined resection of the spleen, stomach wall, and left diaphragm, and resection of the right subphrenic disseminated nodule under a preoperative diagnosis of ruptured HCC. The pathological diagnosis was sarcomatous HCC. Two months after complete resection, recurrent disseminated peritoneal nodules were detected in CT, which showed spontaneous regression without anticancer therapy in CT four months after surgery. This phenomenon continued for four months and the patient died of gastric bleeding due to direct invasion to the stomach. Sarcomatous HCC generally grows very rapidly and spontaneous regression such as in this dismal case is considered quite rare.

Key words
sarcomatous hepatocellular carcinoma, spontaneous regression, peritoneal dissemination

Reprint requests
Kazuya Matsunaga Division of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery, Shizuoka Cancer Center Hospital
1007 Shimonagakubo, Nagaizumi-cho, Sunto-gun, 411-8777 JAPAN

Accepted
May 30, 2007

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