Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Gastrointestinal Involvement: A Systematic Review

In this paper, we aimed to evaluate clinical and imagistic features, and also to provide a diagnostic algorithm for patients presenting with gastrointestinal involvement from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We conducted a systematic search on the PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases to identify and collect papers oncases of HCC with gastrointestinal involvement. This search was last updated on 29 April 2022. One hundred and twenty-three articles were included, corresponding to 197 patients. The majority of the patients were male (87.30%), with a mean age of 61.21 years old. The analysis showed large HCCs located mainly in the right hepatic lobe, and highly elevated alfa-fetoprotein (mean = 15,366.18 ng/mL). The most frequent etiological factor was hepatitis B virus (38.57%). Portal vein thrombosis was present in 27.91% of cases. HCC was previously treated in most cases by transarterial chemoembolization (32.99%) and surgical resection (28.93%). Gastrointestinal lesions, developed mainly through direct invasion and hematogenous routes, were predominantly detected in the stomach and duodenum in equal measure-27.91%. Gastrointestinal bleeding was the most common presentation (49.74%). The main diagnostic tools were esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) and computed tomography. The mean survival time was 7.30 months. Gastrointestinal involvement in HCC should be included in the differential diagnosis of patients with underlying HCC and gastrointestinal manifestations or pathological findings in EGD.