Co-existence of hepatocellular carcinoma and cystic echinococcosis

Co-existence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cystic echinococcus (CE) is extremely rare. Echinococcus granulosus may exhibit a protective effect against cancer. Herein, this study aimed to evaluate the possible effects of echinococcal infection on HCC patients.

Three thousand three hundred hepatic CE patients and 815 HCC patients were retrospectively reviewed between January 2010 and December 2018 in Xinjiang, China, and these patients were 1:5 matched according to their sex, age and tumor TMN stage, and only 13 patients coexisted both CE and HCC. Preoperative ultrasonography (US), computed tomography (CT), liver magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and dot immune-gold filtration assay (DIGFA) were used for preoperative identification and intraoperative specimens from liver resections were pathologically examined for further confirmation. Survival time was analyzed through Cox proportional hazard model analysis.

The co-existing incidence rate of two diseases was 0.39%. For these concurrent cases, HCC was all at the advanced stage and CE lesions were inactive. Median survival time for HCC patients was 6 month (1-17). However, it was 8 month (3-90) for the co-existing cases and was much longer than the median survival time of HCC patients (P<0.05), which was closely associated with tumor size, location, TMN stage and hydatid size, location, classification. Four of the patients underwent surgical intervention and their median survival time was 17 month (3-68).

Echinococcus granulosus may elicit a protective effect against the development and progression of HCC, while more basic and clinical researches are needed.