A Tumor Rupture Related to a Vascular Lake During Drug-Eluting Beads Chemoembolization in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Case Report

Author(s): Jinpeng Li, Congcong shi, Jutian shi, Jinlong song, Nan Wang

DEBs?Drug-eluting microspheres) is a new embolic agent in recent years, which can achieve the dual effects of embolization and local drug release, and achieve more satisfactory tumor response rate and survival time than C-TACE?conventional transcatheter arterial chemoembolization. VL (vascular lake) was a special complication of embolization of HCC with DEBs. Although it had been reported that the occurrence of VL could predict a satisfactory tumor response rate in the literature, but there was a risk of local tumor residue or tumor rupture, which should be paid more attention to. We report a case of hepatocellular carcinoma with tumor rupture after D-TACE treatment and complete response after (TAE) treatment. A 48-year-old man came to our hospital with liver tumor and clinically diagnosed as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Vascular lake appeared during D-TACE treatment. The patient developed abdominal pain the second day after embolization, and was diagnosed as hepatocellular carcinoma rupture by abdominal puncture. Then selective TAE was performed. After TAE, the elevated tumor marker liver level (3008 ng/mL) decreased to the normal level. According to the mRECIST [4], the curative effect was evaluated as partial remission contrast baseline disease. During the follow-up to January 2020, the patient still had no recurrence of the disease, the quality of life was good, and the side effects of targeted drugs were mild.