Risk factors for patients with stage IVB hepatocellular carcinoma and extension into the heart: prognostic and therapeutic implications

Hepatocellular Carcinoma With Tumor Thrombus Extension Into the Right Atrium of the Heart

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver tumor. Most patients present to the hospital with systemic symptoms and typically have a history of liver disease. This case study involves a male in his 60s who presented to our hospital facility with a chief complaint of abdominal pain. He reported no history of liver disease but was diagnosed with HCC stage IVB during this hospitalization. Upon further imaging, a tumor thrombus was found invading the inferior vena cava with an extension into the right atrium. Our primary learning point in this article is to emphasize the importance of prompt surveillance for primary care physicians with patients who are at increased risk for HCC. Additionally, we discuss specific management aimed toward patients diagnosed with a tumor thrombus extending into the right atrium. This management includes dual immunotherapy (atezolizumab and bevacizumab) and transarterial chemotherapy embolization (TACE).

Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Hepatic Vein and Inferior Vena Cava Invasion

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) invades intrahepatic vessels causing tumor thrombosis. Infrequently, there is involvement of the hepatic vein (HV) and inferior vena cava (IVC). In this review, we summarize the epidemiology, classification, clinical features, and management of HCC with HV and IVC invasion. While the involvement of HV and IVC usually portends an overall poor survival, selected patients may be candidates for aggressive treatment and thus improving outcomes.

Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Atrial Extension: A Case Report

Hepatocellular carcinoma is a common malignancy usually associated with cirrhosis. Despite being a highly aggressive tumor with several cases of vascular invasion, metastatic disease to the heart is a rare condition. A 65-year-old male cirrhotic patient was admitted with dyspnea, ascites, and lower extremity edema. A transthoracic echocardiogram showed a large mass in the right atrium. Further imaging studies revealed the presence of hepatocellular carcinoma extending from the liver to the right atrium through the inferior vena cava. The cardiac mass was surgically removed to treat the symptoms of right heart failure, but unfortunately the patient died on the 30th day after surgery due to septic shock.

Diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma with inferior vena cava/right atrium tumor thrombus

Although tumor thrombus (TT) infringement of the inferior vena cava (IVC) and right atrium (RA) is rarely observed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the prognosis for this condition is extremely poor, with a median survival time of several months, given that the condition is often diagnosed at an advanced tumor stage or combined with multiple systemic metastases. Furthermore, there is no established effective treatment for the condition. However, some investigators insist that active treatment, including surgery, chemotherapy (systemic or intra-arterial), radiation therapy, best supportive care or a combination of these, may help prolong overall survival time in these patients. The management of patients with advanced HCC and a TT extending into the RA and IVC is extremely difficult and risky. To this end, the present review assessed the literature on the clinical features and treatments of this condition in recent years, with the aim of providing assistance for clinical work.

Histologically confirmed case of complete atrioventricular block due to hepatocellular carcinoma

A 72-year-old man, who had been diagnosed as having hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with multiple extrahepatic metastasis, complained a general fatigue which appeared 2 weeks before admission. Because bradycardia was detected on physical examination, ECG was performed which revealed the complete atrioventricular (AV) block. We stopped Ca-blocker and β-blocker, but the bradycardia persisted. He was admitted to our hospital for an emergent pacemaker implantation. On admission, he complained dyspnoea. After the surgery, he died due to deterioration of heart failure. The autopsy revealed cardiac metastasis of HCC on AV node, so it was suspected that cardiac metastasis caused the AV block. We thought that the cause of his death was the exacerbation of heart failure associated with bradycardia. It was likely that complete AV block as a very rare complication caused by cardiac metastasis of HCC influenced the prognosis of this patient.

Complete response of hepatocellular carcinoma with right atrium and pulmonary metastases treated by combined treatments (a possible treatment effect of natural killer cell): A case report and literature review

RATIONALE

Hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) with metastases to the right atrium (RA) and lungs are rare, with a poor prognosis. Furthermore, the treatment outcomes in patients with advanced HCCs remain unsatisfactory.

PATIENT CONCERNS

A 46-year-old man presented to our hospital for dyspnea on exertion and abdominal pain.

DIAGNOSES

HCC and extra-hepatic metastases to the lung and RA.

INTERVENTIONS

Multidisciplinary treatment including radiotherapy (RT), transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), and sorafenib. During a follow-up evaluation computed tomography, he experienced a radio-contrast-induced anaphylaxis. After the event, treatment such as RT, TACE, and sorafenib were continued.

OUTCOMES

His tumor burden decreased, finally leading to a complete response as per the modified Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors. The patient is still alive, 30 months after the episode. Subsequent blood tests showed increased natural killer (NK) cell activity, which was significantly higher than that seen in other age-matched HCC patients with an identical stage of the tumor, receiving sorafenib. This suggests that the increase in NK cells induced by anaphylaxis influenced the tumor burden.

LESSONS

We report here a rare case of long-term survival of an HCC patient with multiple metastases treated with multidisciplinary modalities, in which high NK cell activity was observed after a radio-contrast-induced anaphylactic reaction during follow-up investigations.

Finally, a Minimally Invasive Option for Intrahepatic Inferior Vena Cava Invasion by Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background

Major vessel invasion is a late manifestation of hepatocellular carcinoma, which may directly result in mortality if left untreated. Surgical resection may be an option for select patients; however, surgery may be contraindicated. Contraindications include multifocal disease, poor liver reserve, inability to tolerate surgery, and patient preference. Cryoablation is a minimally invasive therapy utilized for treating hepatic neoplasms by subjecting them to extreme cold temperatures. The "thermal sink" effect describes cryoablation near flowing blood such as that found in high volumes within major vascular structures. Thermodynamics dictates that proximity to the flowing intravascular compartment will decrease ice formation, and therefore, tumor destruction.

Methods

This report describes a novel palliative technique to induce temporary cessation of the blood flow in the intrahepatic inferior vena cava (IVC), thus enabling the operator to perform cryoablation targeting invasive cancer within.

Results

Adequate ablation using this technique allowed a patient with IVC invasion 9 months of survival.

Conclusion

Quality of life during this time was maximized, as recovery time from this procedure is minimal.

Combined measurements of tumor number and size helps estimate the outcome of resection of Barcelona clinic liver cancer stage B hepatocellular carcinoma

Background

Although the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging system suggests that patients with stage B hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) should be treated with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization instead of surgical treatment, recent studies indicated that the prognosis of surgical resection for patients with BCLC stage B HCC was better than that of TACE. However, the portion of patients with stage B that will achieve better outcomes from surgical treatment remains unclear. In this study, we identified risk factors that influence the prognosis of BCLC stage B HCC after R0 surgical resection to determine whether some patients with stage B HCC may benefit more from R0 resection than other patients and to provide a guideline to estimate the tendency.

Methods

The clinical data of 78 patients with BCLC stage B HCC after R0 surgical treatment within 11 years were analyzed retrospectively, using relapse or death as the endpoint. Kaplan-Meier survival and Cox regression analyses were used to study prognosis (disease-free survival, DFS and overall survival, OS) and independent risk factors.

Results

For all stage B patients, 1-, 2-, and 5-year DFS rates were 62.5, 36.4, and 16.6 %, respectively. Cumulative tumor size >5.0 cm and tumor number ≥4 were independent prognostic risk factors for DFS. The 1-, 2-, and 5- year DFS rates and OS rates of patients with at least one of these two factors were 49.0, 17.2, and 7.4 % (for DFS), and 78.6, 54.8, and 13.4 % (for OS), respectively, which were significantly lower than patients without these two factors (77.8, 58.3, and 27.2 % for DFS, and 94.4, 83.3,and 51.8 % for OS, respectively, P < 0.01).

Conclusions

The analyses indicated that the outcomes of R0 resection were much better for patients with BCLC stage B HCC with two or three tumors and cumulative tumor sizes of ≤5.0 but >3.0 cm than other patients with stage B.