Abstract
A 64-year-old woman complained of vomiting and back pain after eating. A space-occupying lesion (SOL) was discovered. Advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was suspected because of liver cirrhosis (LC) and elevated serum concentrations of HCC-related tumor markers. The patient underwent follow-up care because diagnosis of the SOL as a neoplastic lesion could not be confirmed. Interestingly, 5 months after discharge, the hepatic SOL had disappeared completely. We concluded that ascending cholangitis caused spontaneous portal vein thrombosis, leading to the hepatic nodule. When a liver SOL complicated by cholangitis is detected in an LC patient, the possibility of a neoplastic lesion must be ruled out. Elevated serum levels of tumor markers and the presence of a hepatic nodule in an LC patient are not always sufficient for a diagnosis of HCC.
