Diagnosis and treatment of primary hepatic carcinoid tumor / 中华外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To discuss the diagnosis and treatment of primary hepatic carcinoid tumor (PHCT).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Report one case of huge PHCT treated in February 2004, and search the other 19 cases which were published from January 1994 to December 2006 in the Chinese biological and medical literature database. The clinical manifestation, pathological findings, diagnosis and treatment of these 20 PHCT patients were analyzed retrospectively.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The main symptoms were abdominal pain or discomfort (8 cases) and abdominal mass (7 cases), cases with typical carcinoid syndrome were rare (3 cases). Immunohistochemical staining was positive for neuron-specific enolase, chromogranin A and synaptophysin in most cases. Sixteen cases received operation, among which there were 13 removed completely, other 4 cases were treated by transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The definite diagnosis of PHCT depends on pathological and histochemical findings. Complete surgical resection is the best treatment for PHCT with favourable prognosis. TACE is also effective for nonoperative cases.</p>

Loss of heterozygosity of plasma circulating DNA from hepatocellular carcinoma patients and its clinical significance / 中华肝脏病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVES</b>To detect the loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of circulating DNA in the plasma of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and to assess its potential as a clinical predictive marker.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Three high-polymorphic microsatellite markers D8S277, D8S298 and D8S1771 located at chromosome 8p were selected to detect LOH in plasma DNA of 62 HCC patients. The associations between LOH and its clinicopathological features, including HBsAg, liver cirrhosis, serum AFP level, tumor size, tumor cell differentiation, and intrahepatic metastasis were also examined.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>In plasma DNA of the 62 HCC patients, LOH was found at one or several loci in 36 (58.1%), and heterozygosity at D8S277, D8S298, and D8S1771 loci was 74.2% (46/62), 75.8% (47/62), and 69.4% (43/62), respectively. LOH frequency at D8S277, D8S298 and D8S1771 was 32.6% (15/46), 44.7% (21/47), and 46.5% (20/43), respectively. LOH in plasma DNA was more frequently detected in the patients with intrahepatic cancer metastasis than those without metastasis (62.5 percent vs. 26.1 percent, P < 0.05); however, no statistically significant correlations were observed between LOH at these loci and other clinicopathological features analyzed in this study.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>LOH at D8S298 in plasma DNA may be a potential predictive marker of intrahepatic metastatic recurrence after surgical resection of the HCC.</p>