Serum carcinoembryonic antigen and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 as preoperative diagnostic biomarkers of extrahepatic bile duct cancer

Cholangiocarcinoma imaging: from diagnosis to response assessment

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), a highly aggressive primary liver cancer arising from the bile duct epithelium, represents a substantial proportion of hepatobiliary malignancies, posing formidable challenges in diagnosis and treatment. Notably, the global incidence of intrahepatic CCA has seen a rise, necessitating a critical examination of diagnostic and management strategies, especially due to presence of close imaging mimics such as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and combined hepatocellular carcinoma-cholangiocarcinoma (cHCC-CCA). Hence, it is imperative to understand the role of various imaging modalities such as ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), elucidating their strengths, and limitations in diagnostic precision and staging accuracy. Beyond conventional approaches, there is emerging significance of functional imaging tools including positron emission tomography (PET)-CT and diffusion-weighted (DW)-MRI, providing pivotal insights into diagnosis, therapeutic assessment, and prognostic evaluation. This comprehensive review explores the risk factors, classification, clinical features, and role of imaging in the holistic spectrum of diagnosis, staging, management, and restaging for CCA, hence serving as a valuable resource for radiologists evaluating CCA.

Fish and Food-Fatale: Food-borne Trematode Opisthorchis viverrini and Cholangiocarcinoma

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are a group of communicable diseases with a long history with human beings. NTDs are the proxy of poverty since they affect those in low-income and extreme-poverty populations, as those populations lack access to proper health care, clean water, sanitary conditions, and hygiene. NTDs create losses for a nation that come from the health and the economic sectors as well since the costs of diagnosis, prevention, and treatment strain the national purse strings. One of the 20 different forms of NTDs on the list is food-borne trematodes, comprises of Fasciola, Paragonimus, Clonorchis, and Opisthorchis. Currently, it is estimated that food-borne trematodes can cause a devastating effect on mortality and morbidity. All of them are zoonotic, as humans become infected by ingestion of a second intermediate host, such as freshwater snails, fish, or water vegetables. Opisthorchis viverrini, one of the food-borne trematodes that can be found mostly in South East Asia regions, especially in the Mekong basin, is regarded as a group 1 carcinogen leading to cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). This study aims to present the updated review of Opisthorchis viverrini and CCA.

Carcinoembryonic antigen, carbohydrate antigen 199 and carbohydrate antigen 724 in gastric cancer and their relationship with clinical prognosis

BACKGROUND

Gastric cancer (GC) is a common malignant tumor of the digestive system with a high degree of malignancy. It usually develops insidiously without any specific symptoms in the early stages. As one of the diseases caused by abnormal gene changes, GC has abnormal expression of various oncogenes and products during its development. Tumor markers such as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 199 (CA199) and carbohydrate antigen 724 (CA724) are not expressed or lowly expressed in normal people, but significantly increased after carcinogenesis. Monitoring the changes in the levels of tumor markers such as CEA, CA199 and CA724 is conducive to early diagnosis and evaluation of the occurrence of some solid tumors.

AIM

To investigate the expression of CEA, CA199 and CA724 in GC and their correlation with clinical features, hoping to provide more effective markers for the early preventive diagnosis of GC.

METHODS

Of 87 patients with GC admitted to our hospital from September 2020 to December 2021 were included in the GC group, and another 80 healthy people who came to our hospital for physical examination with normal results during the same period were selected as the control group. The serum CEA, CA199, and CA724 levels were compared between the two groups, and the serum CEA, CA199, and CA724 levels were compared in patients with GC at different TNM stages, and the differences in the positive rates of CEA, CA199, and CA724 alone and in combination in detecting TNM stages of GC and GC were compared. In addition, the relationship between the levels of tumor markers CEA, CA199 and CA724 and the clinicopathological characteristics of GC patients was also analyzed. The relationship between the serum levels of CEA, CA199 and CA724 and the survival period of GC patients was analyzed by Pearson.

RESULTS

The serum levels of CEA, CA199 and CA724 in GC group were significantly higher than those in control group (P < 0.05). With the increase of TNM stage, the serum CEA, CA199 and CA724 expression levels in GC patients increased significantly, and the differences between groups were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The positive rate of the CA724 single test was higher than that of CEA and CA199 single test (P < 0.05). The positive rate of the three combined tests was 95.40% (83/87), which was higher than that of CEA, CA199 and CA724 single tests. The difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The combined detection positive rates of CEA, CA199, and CA724 in stages I, II, III, and IV of GC were 89.66%, 93.10%, 98.85%, and 100.00% respectively, all of which were higher than the individual detection rates of CEA, CA199, and CA724. The differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in serum CEA, CA199 and CA724 levels between GC patients with different genders, smoking history and alcohol history (P > 0.05). However, the serum CEA, CA199 and CA724 levels were significantly higher in GC patients aged ≥ 45 years, TNM stage III-IV, with lymph node metastasis and tumor diameter ≥ 5 cm than in GC patients aged < 45 years, TNM stage I-II, without lymph node metastasis and tumor diameter < 5 cm (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

The expression levels of serum tumor markers CEA, CA199 and CA724 in patients with GC are high and rise with the increase of TNM stage. The levels of CEA, CA199 and CA724 are related to age, TNM stage, lymph node metastasis and tumor diameter. The combined detection of CEA, CA199 and CA724 is helpful to improve the diagnostic accuracy of GC with high clinical guidance value.

Adenosquamous carcinoma of the gallbladder: a rare entity and dilemmas in its management

Gallbladder carcinomas are the most common form of biliary tract malignancies with adenocarcinomas, by far the most common variant while adenosquamous (adenosquamous carcinoma of the gallbladder) or pure squamous cell carcinomas representing only 2%-10% of all gallbladder carcinomas. Despite being a minority, these tumours demonstrate aggressive behaviour resulting in delayed presentations with widespread local invasion. We report a case involving a woman in her 50s who was diagnosed on imaging with a suspected gallbladder malignancy in the community. She proceeded to have a laparoscopic extended cholecystectomy with a cuff of segment 4b and 5 liver resection and cystic node sampling revealing a T3N1 lesion which on further recommendation by the multidisciplinary team proceeded to have an open portal lymphadenectomy yielding another positive lymph node. This case report highlights the dilemmas encountered in the management of this rare histological subtype in the absence of well-defined treatment algorithm and evolving guidelines.

Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Bile Duct Tumor Thrombus: A Case Report and Literature Review of 890 Patients Affected by Uncommon Primary Liver Tumor Presentation

Bile duct tumor thrombus (BDTT) is an uncommon finding in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), potentially mimicking cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). Recent studies have suggested that HCC with BDTT could represent a prognostic factor. We report the case of a 47-year-old male patient admitted to the University Hospital of Bari with abdominal pain. Blood tests revealed the presence of an untreated hepatitis B virus infection (HBV), with normal liver function and without jaundice. Abdominal ultrasonography revealed a cirrhotic liver with a segmental dilatation of the third bile duct segment, confirmed by a CT scan and liver MRI, which also identified a heterologous mass. No other focal hepatic lesions were identified. A percutaneous ultrasound-guided needle biopsy was then performed, detecting a moderately differentiated HCC. Finally, the patient underwent a third hepatic segmentectomy, and the histopathological analysis confirmed the endobiliary localization of HCC. Subsequently, the patient experienced a nodular recurrence in the fourth hepatic segment, which was treated with ultrasound-guided percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (RFA). This case shows that HCC with BDTT can mimic different types of tumors. It also indicates the value of an early multidisciplinary patient assessment to obtain an accurate diagnosis of HCC with BDTT, which may have prognostic value that has not been recognized until now.

Circulating tumor cells as a preoperative risk marker for occult metastases in patients with resectable cholangiocarcinoma

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is an aggressive tumor associated with a high rate of recurrence after resection. An important risk factor for recurrence is the presence of occult metasta-ses, which are not radiologically detectable at the time of diagnosis. There are currently no biomarkers for the preoperative assessment of micrometastases. A previous study demonstrated the prognostic relevance of circulating tumor cells (CTC) in patients with advanced CCA but the potential of CTCs as a preoperative marker for detecting occult metastases has not been investigated so far. In this two-phase study, we first recruited a cohort of 27 patients with histologically proven, metastatic CCA or gallbladder cancer (GBCA) to assess feasibility (feasibility cohort, FC). CTCs were measured in the peripheral blood using the CellSearch System (CSS) between October 2012 and January 2017. Subsequently, in 11 patients undergoing curative-intended resection for CCA (intrahepatic CCA: n =4; extrahepatic CCA n= 6; gallbladder cancer: n=1), peripheral and central venous blood specimens were obtained to improve detection rate by simultaneous measurement and to elucidate distribution of CTCs in different venous compartments. Presence of CTCs detection was correlated with postoperative TNM-status.

In the FC, CTCs (range 1-3 cells, median: 1) were detected in 40% (11/27) patients and were signifi-cantly associated with worse overall survival (hazard ratio: 3.59; 95% CI: 1.79- 7.1; p = 0.04). By combined peripheral and central measurement, CTC detection was increased to 54% (6/11) in the resection cohort (RC) and was associated with metastases that were only identified during the surgical procedure (peritoneal carcinoma: n = 1; infiltration of the duodenum: n = 1) or immediately after surgery (evidence of pulmonary metastases by CT scan two days after resection, not evident on initial tumor staging prior resection). Taken together, in this single center pilot study, we demonstrated that CTCs are detectable in CCA patients and are associated with significantly impaired survival in patients at metastatic stage. Detection rate prior to surgery was improved to >50% by combined peripheral and central measurement. Moreover, preoperative CTC detection may indicate existing metastases and could help to stratify patients more accurately.