Predictors of hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence associated with the use of direct‐acting antiviral agent therapy for hepatitis C virus after curative treatment: A prospective multicenter cohort study

Abstract Background Previous studies have suggested an association between the use of direct‐acting antiviral agents (DAAs) for treating hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and the resulting decrease in the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, it is unclear whether DAAs prevent the recurrence of HCC after curative treatment for HCC. This study aimed to prospectively investigate HCC recurrence and its predictors after curative treatment for HCC. Methods A total of 3012 patients with chronic HCV infection, with or without cirrhosis, who were treated with DAAs were enrolled between January 1, 2015 and January 31, 2017 as per the institutional review board approved study protocol at 15 institutions, including 10 university hospitals and five high‐volume centers in the Kyusyu area of Japan. Of the 3012 patients, 459 patients who had HCC but were cured with surgery or ablation therapy (curative treatment) before the use of DAAs were included in the analysis. Results During a mean follow‐up period of 29.4 months, 217 (47.2%) patients developed HCC recurrence. The median time to recurrence was 34.0 months, and the 1‐, 2‐, and 3‐year cumulative HCC recurrence rates were 27.1%, 43.4%, and 50.8%, respectively. The risk factors for HCC recurrence were the α‐fetoprotein (AFP) level before DAA therapy (P = 0.0047) and the number of curative treatments for HCC before DAA therapy (P < 0.0001). Conclusions A high AFP level and multiple occurrences of HCC before DAA therapy are associated with a high risk for HCC recurrence after curative treatment. Follow‐up after DAA therapy should include special attention to the abovementioned risk factors

A Case of Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Respiratory Failure Caused by Widespread Tumor Microemboli

A 76-year-old man with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was admitted to our hospital suffering from rapidly progressing dyspnea. Chest computed tomography on admission merely showed ground-glass patterns in both lung fields without thrombi in the pulmonary trunk. On the third day, pulmonary blood flow scintigraphy was performed because of progression of his dyspnea, and showed multiple defects indicating widespread thrombi in the peripheral pulmonary arteries. He died of respiratory failure on day 13. A needle necropsy revealed the presence of multiple foci of adenocarcinoma nests in the lungs, suggesting venous thrombi from the poorly differentiated HCC. Although HCC frequently metastasizes to the lung, patients with lung metastasis rarely result in respiratory failure. It is well known that some patients with adenocarcinoma including HCC can develop respiratory failure owing to pulmonary tumor thrombotic microangiopathy (PTTM). In our case, however, pathological examination showed widespread tumor microemboli in the lung, but no stenosis or fibrocellular intimal proliferation in the small arteries and arterioles, which are essential findings of PTTM. Although we concluded that the respiratory failure in this case was mainly caused by widespread tumor microemboli, it remains unclear why such dissemination rapidly developed.肝細胞癌の肝外転移臓器として，肺は最も頻度の高い臓器である．CT やMR などの画像検査機器の発達により，肺転移巣の同定は容易となり，その診断に苦慮することは希である．また，肝細胞癌からの肺転移は高頻度であるにもかかわらず，呼吸不全に至る症例は少なく，多くの場合，肺転移巣が拡大して呼吸機能に影響を与えるようになる前に，原発の肝病変が進行して，肝不全に至る．今回我々は，肝細胞癌の経過観察中に，原因不明の呼吸不全が急速に進行した症例を経験した．入院時の画像検査で，肺の腫瘍性病変などの呼吸不全を来たす所見を認めず，酸素化が障害されている原因が不明であったが，死後の肺組織検査により，広範な微小腫瘍塞栓が認められた．肺の腫瘍塞栓によって，急速な呼吸不全を来たす病態として，Pulmonary tumor thrombotic microangiopathy（PTTM）があるが，本症例の病理所見では，PTTM は否定的であった．本症例の呼吸不全に関して若干の文献的考察を加えて報告する

X Chromosome Contribution to the Genetic Architecture of Primary Biliary Cholangitis.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Genome-wide association studies in primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) have failed to find X chromosome (chrX) variants associated with the disease. Here, we specifically explore the chrX contribution to PBC, a sexually dimorphic complex autoimmune disease. METHODS: We performed a chrX-wide association study, including genotype data from 5 genome-wide association studies (from Italy, United Kingdom, Canada, China, and Japan; 5244 case patients and 11,875 control individuals). RESULTS: Single-marker association analyses found approximately 100 loci displaying P < 5 × 10(-4), with the most significant being a signal within the OTUD5 gene (rs3027490; P = 4.80 × 10(-6); odds ratio [OR], 1.39; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.028-1.88; Japanese cohort). Although the transethnic meta-analysis evidenced only a suggestive signal (rs2239452, mapping within the PIM2 gene; OR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.09-1.26; P = 9.93 × 10(-8)), the population-specific meta-analysis showed a genome-wide significant locus in East Asian individuals pointing to the same region (rs7059064, mapping within the GRIPAP1 gene; P = 6.2 × 10(-9); OR, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.21-1.46). Indeed, rs7059064 tags a unique linkage disequilibrium block including 7 genes: TIMM17B, PQBP1, PIM2, SLC35A2, OTUD5, KCND1, and GRIPAP1, as well as a superenhancer (GH0XJ048933 within OTUD5) targeting all these genes. GH0XJ048933 is also predicted to target FOXP3, the main T-regulatory cell lineage specification factor. Consistently, OTUD5 and FOXP3 RNA levels were up-regulated in PBC case patients (1.75- and 1.64-fold, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: This work represents the first comprehensive study, to our knowledge, of the chrX contribution to the genetics of an autoimmune liver disease and shows a novel PBC-related genome-wide significant locus.The article is available via Open Access. Click on the 'Additional link' above to access the full-text.Published version, accepted versio