Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jan 26, 2021; 9(3): 714-721
Published online Jan 26, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i3.714
Clinical cure and liver fibrosis reversal after postoperative antiviral combination therapy in hepatitis B-associated non-cirrhotic hepatocellular carcinoma: A case report
Xue-Ping Yu, Qi Lin, Zhi-Peng Huang, Wei-Shan Chen, Ming-Hui Zheng, Yi-Juan Zheng, Ju-Lan Li, Zhi-Jun Su
Xue-Ping Yu, Qi Lin, Ming-Hui Zheng, Yi-Juan Zheng, Ju-Lan Li, Zhi-Jun Su, Department of Infection Diseases, First Hospital of Quanzhou Affiliated to Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou 362000, Fujian Province, China
Zhi-Peng Huang, Department of Gastroenterology, First Hospital of Quanzhou Affiliated to Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou 362000, Fujian Province, China
Wei-Shan Chen, Department of Pathology, First Hospital of Quanzhou Affiliated to Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou 362000, Fujian Province, China
Author contributions: Yu XP, Lin Q, and Su ZJ performed the postoperative evaluation and diagnosis; Huang ZP and Chen WS pathologically diagnosed the tissue; Zheng MH, Zheng YJ, and Li JL collected the medical data; Yu XP and Su ZJ reviewed the literature and contributed to manuscript drafting; Yu XP and Huang ZP contributed equally to this article; and all authors issued final approval for the submitted version.
Supported by Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province, No. 2019J01593; High-Level Talent Innovation Project of Quanzhou, No. 2018C067R; Science and Technology Innovation Joint Project of Fujian Province, No. 2019Y9048; Youth Research Project of Fujian Provincial Health Commission, No. 2018-1-94 and No. 2018-1-95; Science and Technology Project of Quanzhou, No. 2018Z074 and No. 2018Z069.
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 conflicts of interest related to this manuscript.
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).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zhi-Jun Su, Chief Doctor, Department of Infection Disease, First Hospital of Quanzhou Affiliated to Fujian Medical University, No. 250 East Street, Licheng District, Quanzhou 362000, Fujian Province, China. su2366@sina.com
Received: September 28, 2020
Peer-review started: September 28, 2020
First decision: November 3, 2020
Revised: November 20, 2020
Accepted: December 11, 2020
Article in press: November 11, 2020
Published online: January 26, 2021
Processing time: 114 Days and 6.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Patients with hepatitis B virus infection can progress to liver failure, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, not all HCCs originate from cirrhosis, and approximately 15%-20% of HCC cases still occur without cirrhosis. Most importantly, the treatment of non-cirrhotic HCC after surgery and whether the risk of recurrence can be reduced by combining immunomodulators are the urgent problems that need to be solved at present. Therefore, we report a case in which HCC still occurred after 16 years of antiviral therapy, and the combination of immunoregulator therapy after HCC resection achieved a clinical cure and liver fibrosis reversal.