Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jul 6, 2022; 10(19): 6744-6749
Published online Jul 6, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i19.6744
Primary squamous cell carcinoma of the liver: A case report
Li-Min Kang, Di-Ping Yu, Yong Zheng, Ya-Hao Zhou
Li-Min Kang, Yong Zheng, Ya-Hao Zhou, Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Puer People's Hospital, Puer 665000, Yunnan Province, China
Di-Ping Yu, Department of Pathology, Puer People's Hospital, Puer 665000, Yunnan Province, China
Author contributions: Kang LM, Zheng Y and Zhou YH collected the clinical data; and Kang LM and Yu DP analyzed the data and wrote the paper.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
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Corresponding author: Li-Min Kang, MD, PhD, Attending Doctor, Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Puer People's Hospital, No. 44 Zhenxing Street, Puer 665000, Yunnan Province, China. kanglimin2010@163.com
Received: February 16, 2022
Peer-review started: February 16, 2022
First decision: March 10, 2022
Revised: March 18, 2022
Accepted: April 22, 2022
Article in press: April 22, 2022
Published online: July 6, 2022
Processing time: 127 Days and 22.5 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the liver is rare, and is more commonly found in the skin, rectum, cervical or inguinal lymph nodes.

CASE SUMMARY

A 73-year-old man had been experiencing right upper quadrant discomfort for some weeks. He had a 50-year history of smoking and drinking. On average, he smoked 20 cigarettes and consumed 200 galcoholdaily. He didn’t have a history of hepatitis or surgery. Fever, vomiting, jaundice, dysuria, chills, and abdominal distention were not observed at the time of admission. Tenderness in the right upper quadrant was found on physical examination, but there was no palpable abdominal mass. No obvious abnormalities in laboratory tests and tumor markers were found. The plasma retention rate of indocyanine green (ICG) at 15 min was 1.35%. Subsequent abdominal ultrasonography showed a mixed echoic mass approximately 3.8 cm diameter in the left caudate lobe of the liver. Abdominal computed tomography confirmed a 3.0 cm × 3.5 cm irregular mass with inhomogeneous density and moderate delayed enhancement in the left caudate lobe of the liver. Laparoscopic left caudate lobectomy was performed to remove the liver mass. Intra-operative findings confirmed a non-cirrhotic liver, with a 3 cm × 3.5 cm white tumor mass in the left caudate lobe with no tumor rupture and no hemoperitoneum. The resection margin was 1.0 cm in width.

CONCLUSION

We describe the first case of SCC in the left caudate lobe of the liver, which was successfully treated by surgical resection and postoperative immunotherapy. No tumor recurrence was observed during the 8-mo follow-up.

Keywords: Squamous cell carcinoma; Liver; Left caudate lobe; Immunotherapy; Case report

Core Tip: Primary squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the liver is very rare. Here we report the first case of SCC of the left caudate liver lobe successfully treated by laparoscopic hepatectomy. The patient refused to undergo systemic chemotherapy, and received immunotherapy, and the disease-free survival was 8 mo. However, there is no available literature on the effectiveness of immunotherapy in this disease, and this requires further study.