Postresection autopsy findings in patients with cancer of the main hepatic duct junction

✍ Scribed by Toshiharu Tsuzuki; Atsushi Sugioka; Masakazu Ueda; Shuhei Iida; Izumi Nakanishi; Shigeru Kuramochi

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 413 KB
• Volume: 67
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-0142(19910615)67:12<3010::aid-cncr2820671214>3.0.co;2-8

✦ Synopsis

Extensive resection of the bile ducts combined with hepatic resection is the procedure of choice for carcinoma of the main hepatic duct junction. Currently this procedure is done without great risk, and increasing long-term survival is now the issue, For this purpose, it is necessary to elucidate the biologic properties of the cancer to take reasonable measures. Autopsy findings of patients who died of recurrence may offer a reliable guide. Autopsy findings were studied in 14 patients: eight who had undergone curative resection and six who had received noncurative resection. Cancer recurred at the liver hilum with invasion into adjacent organs. Peritoneal dissemination and lymph node metastases were infrequent. These were common findings in both curative and noncurative resection groups. Cancer cells in the connective tissue of the hepatoduodenal ligament may play a major role in recurrence. Cancer 67:3010-3013,1991.

HERE IS INCREASING EVIDENCE SuppOrtiIlg the Con-

T cept that extensive resection of the bile ducts combined with hepatic resection is the procedure of choice for carcinoma of the main hepatic duct junction. Currently this procedure is done without great risk,' and increasing long-term survival is now the issue. It has been shown that long-term survival can be obtained by extensive resection.' However, such resection does not necessarily produce the desired result. To increase long-term survival, it is necessary to elucidate the biologic properties of the cancer to take reasonable measures. Autopsy findings in patients who died of recurrence may afford us a reliable guide for this purpose. Thus, we studied autopsy findings in 14 patients who died of recurrence of the cancer after resection.