Transplant oncology is an emerging concept of cancer treatment with a promising prospective outcome. The application of oncology, transplant medicine, and surgery to improve patients’ survival and quality of life is the core of transplant oncology. Hepatobiliary malignancies have been treated by liver transplantation (LT) with significant improved outcome. In addition, as the liver is the most common site of metastasis for colorectal cancer (CRC), patients with CRC who have stable unresectable liver metastases are good candidates for LT, and initial studies have shown improved survival compared to palliative systemic therapy. The indications of LT for hepatobiliary malignancies have been slowly expanded over the years in a stepwise manner; however, they have only been shown to improve patient survival in the setting of limited systemic therapy options. This review illustrates the concept and history of transplant oncology as an evolving field for the management of hepatocellular carcinoma, intrahepatic biliary cancer, and liver-only metastasis of non-hepatobiliary carcinoma. The utility of immunotherapy in the transplant setting is discussed as well as the feasibility of using circulating tumor DNA for surveillance post-transplantation.
Cholangiocarcinoma is a tumor that arises as a result of differentiation of the cholangiocytes and can develop from anywhere in the biliary tree. Subtypes of cholangiocarcinoma are differentiated based on their location in the biliary tree. If diagnosed early these can be resected, but most cases of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma present late in the disease course where surgical resection is not an option. In these patients who are poor candidates for resection, a combination of chemotherapy, locoregional therapies like ablation, transarterial chemo and radioembolization, and in very advanced and metastatic disease, external radiation are the available options. These modalities can improve overall disease-free and progression-free survival chances. In this review, we will discuss the risk factors and clinical presentation of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, diagnosis, available therapeutic options, and future directions for management options.
We describe the case of a 42-year-old man with cirrhosis who presented with fever and imaging concerning for metastatic disease from suspected renal cell carcinoma. He had a right renal mass with multiple pulmonary masses and underwent a lung biopsy and oncology consultation. Blood cultures revealed Klebsiella pneumoniae, and all the lesions disappeared after intravenous (IV) antibiotics. Our case attempts to increase awareness of this unique presentation of invasive Klebsiella infections and discusses host factors that can predispose to this condition.
This report describes the case of a 63-year-old female with a metastatic neuroendocrine tumor (NET). Imaging studies revealed a primary hepatic NET (PHNET) originating in the porta hepatis and associated with extensive hepatic metastasis. This represents an extremely rare presentation of PHNET associated with ectopic adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) production and hypercortisolism. As such, it is a unique presentation of an otherwise rare pathology and hence we believe it contributes to the literature on PHNETs by supplementing it with information on an uncommon variation of an infrequent pathology.