A Mimicking Esophageal Cancer After Liver Transplant for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Rare Posttransplant Metastasis

Exp Clin Transplant. 2016 Oct;14(5):571-574. doi: 10.6002/ect.2014.0179. Epub 2015 Aug 31.

Abstract

Liver transplant is now considered to be a successful treatment modality for early hepatocellular carcinoma. In addition, advances in immunosuppressive therapy have greatly prolonged posttransplant survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. However, both the posttransplant physiologic condition and immunosuppressive therapy affect the patient's natural immunity, resulting in accumulating and more problematic complications. Three years after a male patient with hepatocellular carcinoma underwent living-donor liver transplant, he presented with esophageal metastasis from recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma. This is an extremely rare complication, perhaps with an ominous prognosis, and, to the best of our knowledge, the first such case to be published in the English literature.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Biopsy
  • Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / secondary*
  • Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / surgery*
  • Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal
  • Esophageal Neoplasms / secondary*
  • Fatal Outcome
  • Humans
  • Liver Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Liver Neoplasms / surgery*
  • Liver Transplantation / adverse effects*
  • Liver Transplantation / methods
  • Living Donors
  • Male
  • Neoplasm Recurrence, Local*
  • Positron-Emission Tomography
  • Time Factors
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed
  • Treatment Outcome