The significance of extrahepatic feeding arteries in patients with extrahepatically growing hepatocellular carcinoma infiltrating into other organs

Abstract

Extrahepatically growing hepatocellular carcinoma (EG-HCC) is defined as a rare type of hepatocellular carcinoma. EG-HCCs rarely infiltrate surrounding organs directly and nourished by extrahepatic feeding arteries (EHFAs) that maintain other organs. We identified 157 EG-HCC cases using a database in Japan from 1984 to 2010, and investigated the features exhibited by EG-HCCs infiltrations and the relationships between the infiltrations and EHFAs.
The average tumor size in the infiltrated group was larger than that in the non-infiltrated group. The size of EG-HCCs with EHFAs was larger compared with EG-HCCs without EHFAs. In the infiltrated group, the tumor size was larger and the percentage of tumor with EHFAs was increased. The rate of EHFAs in the infiltrated group is larger than that in non-infiltrated group.
Our results indicate that well-nourished EG-HCCs with EHFAs increases in size, infiltration into other organs occurs.