Successful treatment of ruptured hepatocellular carcinoma with intraperitoneal injection of OK-432.

We report a 51-year-old man with a ruptured hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). He was admitted to the hospital with abdominal pain and distension. Imaging studies revealed massive ascites, liver cirrhosis, and a 3-cm tumor at the inferior edge of the medial segment of the liver, with adhesions to the greater omentum. Abdominal paracentesis showed bloody ascites, and the patient was diagnosed with a ruptured HCC. OK-432, an immunomodulatory agent prepared from an attenuated strain of Streptococcus pyogenes, was injected (10 KE) into the peritoneal cavity four times within 1 week; the massive ascites disappeared, and the serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level decreased to within the normal limits. Afterwards, he underwent a curative operation for HCC. His postoperative course was uneventful and he was discharged from the hospital on the twenty-second postoperative day. He had shown no evidence of recurrence or metastases at the time he died of hepatic failure related to alcohol abuse 9 months after the operation.