Three Resected Cases of Intrabiliary Growth Type of Hepatoma

Abstract

Intrabiliary growth type of hepatoma is a rare hepatocellular carcinoma which invades the bile duct in an early stage. Currently there is no definite classification, and the frequency accounting for all hepatocellular carcinomas varies from 0.7% to 9.0% depending on different reporters. The reason is that the difference in the growth pattern of hepatoma leads to the classification of them into two groups: namely, in one group, growth of tumor into the bile duct is more prominent than its intrahepatic growth and the patient presents with stagnation icterus in the early stage; and in the other, relatively advanced primary lesion leads to a growth of tumor in the bile duct. Here we report three resected cases of intrabiliary growth type of hepatoma presenting the above described growth patterns. Of the three cases, case 1 was a 56-year-old female presenting the latter described growth pattern. She experienced recurrence and died 3 months after operation; case 2 was a 67-year-old male also presenting the latter pattern, who died of liver failure 11 months after surgery; and case 3, a 59-year-old male, who presented the growth pattern described formerly and died of recurrence 12 months after resection.