A case of metachronous cholangiocellular and hepatocellular carcinoma with good prognosis

A 63-year-old man was treated for 6 months with interferon (IFN) for chronic hepatitis C but the treatment failed to eradicate hepatitis C virus. Six months after completion of IFN therapy, cholangiocellular carcinoma (CCC) was detected in the posterior inferior segment and was resected surgically. He had been in good condition except for diabetic nephropathy progressing to renal failure at 3 years after the resection of CCC. Seven years after the resection of CCC, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was detected in the posterior superior segment of the liver. The tumor was pathologically confirmed by fine needle aspiration biopsy. The patient was successfully treated with two courses of percutaneous ethanol injection and has been well 1 year after the treatment. HCV status did not change as genotype 1b with moderate viral load (300 to 500 kilo copies/mL by amplicore monitoring) during the follow-up. Thus, even though the patient was treated with IFN, hepatitis C could progress to not only HCC but also CCC in the same patient. Our patient is still alive, 9.5 years after detection of the first tumor.