Biomedical subjects

Wei-Chen Lee

Publications and source records attributed to Wei-Chen Lee.

21 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed2002

Liver cell adenoma with concomitant hepatocellular carcinoma: report of two cases.

Malignant transformation of liver cell adenoma and unequivocal hepatocellular carcinoma in resected liver cell adenomas are rare. We report two cases of liver cell adenoma with concomitant hepatocellular carcinoma. The first occurred in a 19-year-old male with an asymptomatic liver mass and was discovered incidentally. He had a history of nephrotic syndrome treated with oral prednisolone for 15 years. The second occurred in a 46-year-old female who was admitted due to right tubo-ovarian abscess. Computerized tomography scanning incidentally found a 10-cm liver mass in the right lobe. There was no history of oral contraceptive use. Both patients were negative for serum hepatitis B surface antigen and anti-hepatitis C virus antibody. Neither had cirrhosis. These two cases imply that malignant transformation of liver cell adenoma does occur, and that liver cell adenomas should be excised when malignant transformation is suspected.

Adenoma, Liver Cell↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Vaccination of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma patients with tumor lysate-pulsed dendritic cells: a clinical trial.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common and rapidly progressing malignancy. Current treatment options for advanced HCC are limited. This clinical study of dendritic cell (DC)-based immunotherapy for HCC enrolled 31 patients with advanced HCC. DCs, propagated from peripheral blood monocytes, were pulsed with autologous tumor lysates to treat HCC. The first 14 patients underwent pulsed therapy with five courses of DC vaccination intravenously at weekly intervals. The other 17 patients underwent monthly boost vaccinations after the initial pulsed therapy. Among the 31 patients, 4 (12.9%) exhibited partial response to DC vaccination. Seventeen patients (54.8%) had stable disease. Ten patients (32.3%) had progressive disease. The overall 1-year survival rate of all 31 patients was 40.1 +/- 9.1%. The patients treated with pulsed and boosted therapy had better 1-year survival rates than those treated by pulsed therapy alone (63.3 +/- 12.0% vs. 10.7 +/- 9.4%; P < 0.001). In this trial, DC vaccinations for advanced HCC were safe. Liver function tests showed no difference before and after DC vaccinations. The results of this clinical trial indicate that DC vaccination is a safe treatment for HCC. Pulsed DC vaccination followed by boosters can provide better clinical survival for advanced HCC patients than pulsed DC vaccination only. Further studies are needed to increase the efficacy of this therapeutic approach.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Hepatic resection for hepatocellular carcinoma in elderly patients.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: We present the clinical features and outcome of 34 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma older than 70 years of age who underwent hepatic resection (elderly-HCC). Nowadays, hepatic surgeons unavoidably have to perform hepatic resection on elderly patients with hepatocellular carcinoma due to increasing life expectancy. However, the outcome of hepatic resection on elderly patients with hepatocellular carcinoma varies in each series, and the exact role of surgery in the management of hepatocellular carcinoma in the elderly remains to be clarified. METHODOLOGY: From 1986 to 1998, the clinical features of 34 surgically treated cases of elderly-HCC were reviewed. Factors that may influence the outcome were also analyzed. Clinical features and outcome of 398 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma younger than 70 years old (younger-HCC) were also summarized for comparison. RESULTS: Of 432 surgically resected hepatocellular carcinomas, 34 (7.9%) were elderly-HCC. More underlying diabetes mellitus association, higher hepatitis C infection, and lower hepatitis B infection were observed in the elderly-HCC group. More blood loss, larger tumor size, less capsule formation, and more recurrence were significantly prominent in the patients in the younger-HCC group compared with the elderly-HCC group. The patients in the elderly-HCC group had a favorable disease-free survival rate compared with the younger-HCC group, although not statistically significant. The 1- and 5-year survival rates of elderly-HCC patients were 85.3% and 39.6%, respectively. No significant difference in survival or mortality rate was found between elderly-HCC and younger-HCC groups. CONCLUSIONS: We present the clinical features and outcomes of 34 elderly patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who underwent hepatic resection. The results seem to indicate that hepatic resection is safe and feasible in the elderly with hepatocellular carcinoma with or without cirrhosis. The prognosis after hepatic resection is as comparable as that of the younger patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Aged↗