Regression Of Hepatocellular Carcinoma During Vitamin K Administration.
Nouso, K., Uematsu, S., Shiraga, K., Okamoto, R., Harada, R., Takayama, S., Kawai, W., Kimura, S., Ueki, T., Okano, N., Nakagawa, M., Mizuno, M., Araki, Y., & Shiratori, Y. (2005). Regression of hepatocellular carcinoma during vitamin K administration. World journal of gastroenterology, 11(42), 6722–6724. https://doi.org/10.3748/wjg.v11.i42.6722
View Original Source →Abstract
An 85-year-old man with HCV infection and diabetes mellitus was diagnosed as having hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC, 13 cm in diameter) based on high serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), AFP-L3, and des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin levels as well as typical enhancement pattern on contrast-enhanced CT. The patient did not receive any interventional treatments because of advanced age and the advanced stage of HCC. He chose to take vitamin K, which was reported to suppress the growth of HCC in vitro. Three months after starting vitamin K, all three tumor markers were normalized and HCC was markedly regressed, showing no enhancement in the early arterial phase on CT. Here we present the report describing the regression of HCC during the administration of vitamin K.
Case Details
Disease Location
Liver
Personal Characteristics
85-year-old man with liver cirrhosis due to HCV and diabetes mellitus. No history of alcohol drinking or blood transfusion. He did not smoke and was not taking any medicine, but was under intermediate-acting insulin (12 u/d) injection. He had undergone surgery for prostate hypertrophy 3 years before the present admission.
Clinical Characteristics
Abdominal ultrasonography (us) demonstrated that a large hyperechoic mass (13 cm in diameter) with central hypoechoic area dominated the right lobe of the liver. Based on typical imaging features and elevated hcc tumour markers, the liver tumours were diagnosed as hcc, no mets
Remission Characteristics
Ce-CT, 5 months after starting vitamin k, demonstrated that the tumour sizes were remarkably decreased and the diameter of the main tumour was 5.5 cm. Us demonstrated that the tumour regressed and the margin of the tumour became obscure
Treatment & Mechanisms
Proposed Remission Mechanisms
Blood shortage induced by rapid tumour growth or regression due to vitamin k administration
Clinical Treatment
Vitamin k