Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 7, 2020; 26(29): 4327-4342
Published online Aug 7, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i29.4327
Clinicopathological characteristics and surgical outcomes of sarcomatoid hepatocellular carcinoma
Jian-Ping Wang, Zhi-Gang Yao, Ya-Wen Sun, Xi-Han Liu, Feng-Kai Sun, Cun-Hu Lin, Fu-Xin Ren, Bei-Bei Lv, Shuai-Jun Zhang, Yang Wang, Fan-Ying Meng, Shun-Zhen Zheng, Wei Gong, Jun Liu
Jian-Ping Wang, Fan-Ying Meng, Shun-Zhen Zheng, Wei Gong, Jun Liu, Department of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250021, Shandong Province, China
Jian-Ping Wang, Fan-Ying Meng, Shun-Zhen Zheng, Wei Gong, Jun Liu, Department of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong Province, China
Zhi-Gang Yao, Cun-Hu Lin, Bei-Bei Lv, Shuai-Jun Zhang, Department of Pathology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong Province, China
Ya-Wen Sun, Cancer Prevention and Control Research Office of Shandong Province, Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, Shandong First Medical University and Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan 250117, Shandong Province, China
Xi-Han Liu, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, Shandong Province, China
Feng-Kai Sun, Department of Gastroenterology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong Province, China
Fu-Xin Ren, Shandong Medical Imaging Research Institute, Shandong University, Jinan 250021, Shandong Province, China
Yang Wang, Department of Radiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong Province, China
Author contributions: Wang JP and Liu J designed the study; Yao ZG, Lin CH, Lv BB and Zhang SJ collected and analyzed the pathological data; Ren FX and Wang Y collected and analyzed the imaging data; Liu XH, Sun FK, Meng FY, Zheng SZ and Gong W collected and analyzed the clinical data; Sun YW performed statistical analyses; Wang JP drafted the manuscript; Liu J supervised the study and revised the manuscript.
Supported by Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, China, No. ZR2014HP065 and No. ZR2017BH072; National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81373172 and No. 81770646; and Shandong Key R& D Program, No. 2015GGB14099 and No. 2017GSF218038.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Shandong Provincial Hospital.
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent for this study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict-of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jun Liu, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, No. 324 Jingwu Road, Jinan 250021, Shandong Province, China. dr_liujun1967@126.com
Received: March 11, 2020
Peer-review started: March 11, 2020
First decision: April 8, 2020
Revised: April 24, 2020
Accepted: July 14, 2020
Article in press: July 14, 2020
Published online: August 7, 2020
Core Tip

Core tip: Sarcomatoid hepatocellular carcinoma is a rare malignancy. Patients usually present with an advanced stage of the disease and have a poor prognosis. Histopathological examination plays an important role in diagnosis because serologic and radiologic examinations cannot help in distinguishing this disease from conventional hepatocellular carcinoma or other intrahepatic masses. Most patients have a history of chronic liver disease; thus, regular ultrasound screening of such patients can help detect tumors at an early stage and reduce the risk of death. Moreover, we discovered that carcinomatous components occupied the predominant proportion of invasions and metastases, and we developed a hypothesis regarding the occurrence of the disease.