-Report on Experiments and Clinical Cases-

A Case Report of Metachronous Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Early Esophageal Cancer

Ken Takahashi, Hiroshi Yoshida, Yasuhiro Mamada, Nobuhiko Taniai, Yoshiharu Nakamura, Yoshiaki Mizuguchi, Masao Miyashita, Tsutomu Nomura, Hiroshi Makino and Takashi Tajiri

Surgery of Organ Function and Biological Regulation, Nippon Medical School Graduate School of Medicine

We report a case of double cancer of the liver and esophagus, an extremely rare condition that can be very difficult to treat. A tumorous lesion was pointed out in segment 6 of the liver of a 69-year-old man under treatment for liver cirrhosis. Abdominal computed tomography and angiography revealed a hepatocellular carcinoma. The patient underwent transcatheter arterial embolization and partial resection of segments 5 and 6.
Fourteen months later, a small elevated lesion was detected in the esophagus during an endoscopic examination. The patient was treated by endoscopic mucosal resection and radiation therapy at a total dose of 50 Gy. Histological examination revealed a squamous cell carcinoma with cancer cells confined within the epithelium of the esophagus. Over the 6 years since the hepatectomy, there have been no signs of recurrence.
We report a successful curative resection in an extremely rare form of double cancer with a poor prognosis.

J Nippon Med Sch 2005; 72: 187-190

Keywords
Hepatocellular carcinoma, Esophageal cancer

Correspondence to
Hiroshi Yoshida, The First Department of Surgery, Nippon Medical School, 1-1-5 Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8603, Japan
hiroshiy@nms.ac.jp

Received, January 7, 2005
Accepted, February 2, 2005