Surgically Diagnosed Primary Hepatic Angiosarcoma.

Primary hepatic angiosarcoma is a rare tumor originating from endothelial cells in the liver and accounts for approximately 1% of all hepatic malignant tumors. It is difficult to diagnose due to the lack of specific symptoms or tumor markers. No effective treatment exists, but complete surgical resection may achieve a good outcome. Since most primary hepatic angiosarcomas are already at an advanced stage at diagnosis, few reports describe tumors smaller than 2 cm. We report a case of surgery for a 1.7-cm sized primary hepatic angiosarcoma. Further studies are required to improve the preoperative diagnosis of primary hepatic angiosarcoma.

[Evaluation of bone marrow involvement by FDG-PET for refractory Hodgkin lymphoma treated by unrelated allogeneic bone marrow transplantation].

A 23-year-old female patient was diagnosed as having Hodgkin lymphoma (mixed cellularity type, clinical stage III B) in September 2000. She underwent ABVD chemotherapy and irradiation of a mediastinal lesion, resulting in complete remission. However, the disease reoccurred three month after the completion of initial treatment. She was admitted to our hospital for allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Thoractic vertebra, lumbar vertebra and iliac bone lesions were detected by FDG-PET, and a diagnosis of bone marrow infiltration was made. She received re-induction chemotherapy but did not achieve complete remission. A residual lesion in her bone marrow was detected by FDG-PET. She underwent unrelated allogeneic bone marrow transplantation in May 2002. Preconditioning was VP-16, CY and TBI. Engraftment of white blood cells was on day 15. Skin GVHD was detected at the same time and she was treated with steroid hormones, resulting in improvement. No residual mass could be detected by FDG-PET on day 60. However, she suffered from fever on day 80. Aggravation of the disease was revealed and she died from progression of the disease on day 120. FDG-PET is useful for the monitoring disease status and for determining the optimal timing of various treatments.

[A case report of primary gastric adult T cell lymphoma].

A 70-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital for treatment of abdominal tumor. She had complained of left abdominal pain, body weight loss and slight fever. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed on profounding ulcerous and upheaval lesion from the upper part of gastric body to the antrum. The pathological diagnosis of the biopsy specimens was T-cell lymphoma and proviral DNA (GAG) of HTLV-I was demonstrated in the biopsy specimens. Although the patient was serologically positive for anti-human T-lymphotrophic virus type I (HTLV-I) antibody, there were no leukemia/lymphoma cells in the peripheral blood or systemic lymphadenopathy. Primary gastric Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) was diagnosed. Although she received chemotherapy, the response was poor. The prognosis of lymphoma-type ATL is known to be extremely poor. This disease is frequent in aged people. Although gastrointestinal involvement is frequent in ATLL, primary gastric ATLL is rare. We report this rare case with primary gastric ATLL and reviewing 13 cases previously reported.