A Long-term Survival Case of Hepatic Metastasis from Cancer of the Extrahepatic Bile Duct Treated with Hepatectomy

Hiroyuki Shinchi, Yukou Mataki, Hiroshi Kurahara, Shinichi Maeda, Fumitake Kubo, Masahiko Sakoda, Shinichi Ueno, Kosei Maemura, Shoji Natsugoe and Sonshin Takao*

Department of Surgical Oncology and Digestive Surgery and Frontier Science Research Center*, Kagoshima University

We report a case of hepatic metastasis from bile duct cancer treated by hepatectomy followed by arterial chemotherapy. A 41-year-old man undergoing pylorus-preserving pancreaticoduodenectomy in April 1995 had been diagnosed histopathologically with moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma with regional lymph node metastasis. Hepatic metastasis 1.6 cm in diameter in Couinaud's segment VI was detected in follow-up computed tomography (CT) in December 1995, with partial hepatectomy in April 1996. We conducted both arterial and systemic chemotherapy postoperatively, and the man remains alive without recurrence 12 years after hepatectomy. When a patient has a solitary metastasis of the liver with no other evidence of recurrence, hepatic resection appears to be an effective option.

Key words
bile duct cancer, hepatectomy, liver metastasis

Reprint requests
Hiroyuki Shinchi Department of Surgical Oncology and Digestive Surgery, Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences
8-35-1 Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima, 890-8520 JAPAN

Accepted
February 18, 2009

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