Long term survival of a patient with a regressed giant hepatocellular carcinoma after transcatheter hepatic artery embolization (TAE) complicated with liver abscess.

A 62-year-old male patient with histologically proven hepatocellular carcinoma, received transcatheter hepatic artery embolization (TAE) therapy. Development of right pyothorax and liver abscess at the tumor region occurred 4 months later after TAE. Aeromonas hydrophila was isolated from the liver abscess. After repeated percutaneous drainage, the abscess cavity disappeared and the tumor became undetectable by ultrasonography. Nineteen months after the initial presentation, a second tumor at the dome of the right lobe liver was found. TAE was repeated. Bile stasis with stricture of left intrahepatic ducts were found by Tc-99m HIDA cholangiography and endoscopic retrograde cholangiography. The patient had a normal lifestyle until the third tumor appeared at the right lower liver 18 months after the second TAE. TAE was conducted a third time. A shunting between the hepatic artery and vein developed at the new tumor area 3 months later. The patient is surviving today which is five and a half years after the initial diagnosis. We believe that the liver abscess after TAE contributed to the complete regression of the giant tumor, in addition to the anti-tumor effect of the successful TAE.