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CASE REPORT article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Cancer Metabolism
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2024.1489725
This article is part of the Research Topic Metabolism, Gut Microbiome, and Cancer View all 7 articles

Diagnosis and Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Pelvic Metastasis Expressing AFP: A Case Report

Provisionally accepted
Legang Huang Legang Huang *Zijie Wang Zijie Wang Jiankuan Lu Jiankuan Lu *
  • Department of Vascular Intervention, Shengli Oilfield Central Hospital, Dongying, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This report presents the case of a 68-year-old female patient with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who experienced persistently elevated alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels following resection of the primary liver tumor. The patient had previously undergone transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) and liver tumor resection, but postoperative AFP levels continued to rise, suggesting the possibility of extrahepatic metastasis. PET-CT scans revealed an irregular soft tissue mass in the recto-uterine pouch, which was later confirmed as a HCC metastasis through needle biopsy. The patient subsequently received radioactive seed implantation therapy, leading to a significant decrease in AFP levels. This case highlights the rarity of isolated pelvic metastasis in HCC patients and underscores the importance of AFP in postoperative monitoring. The combination of PET-CT imaging and pathological biopsy is instrumental in improving the detection rate of HCC metastases, enabling more accurate treatment planning for patients.

    Keywords: Hepatocellular Carcinoma ( HCC), Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), HCC metastasis, Radioactive seed implantation, PET-CT

    Received: 01 Sep 2024; Accepted: 10 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Huang, Wang and Lu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Legang Huang, Department of Vascular Intervention, Shengli Oilfield Central Hospital, Dongying, China
    Jiankuan Lu, Department of Vascular Intervention, Shengli Oilfield Central Hospital, Dongying, China

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