Inferior vena cava tumor thrombus that directly infiltrated from paracaval lymph node metastases in a patient with recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma

Herein, we present the case of a patient with recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who had paracaval lymph node (LN) metastases with an inferior vena cava (IVC) tumor thrombus after a hepatectomy. A 65-year-old man with chronic hepatitis B virus infection received an extended anterior segmentectomy because of two hepatic tumors, located in segments 7 and 8. Histological examination of both resected specimens showed mostly moderately differentiated HCC with some poorly differentiated areas, and liver cirrhosis (A2/F4). Because the patient had an elevated alpha-fetoprotein serum level, abdominal computed tomography (CT) was performed. Abdominal CT revealed a 9-mm-diameter recurrent tumor in hepatic segment 3 and paracaval LN metastases with an IVC tumor thrombus at 8 months after the first operation. The patient received transcatheter arterial chemoembolization as treatment for the intrahepatic recurrence, following resection of the paracaval LN metastases and removal of the IVC tumor thrombus. In this case, the paracaval LN metastases had directly infiltrated the IVC via the lumbar veins, resulting in an IVC tumor thrombus, which usually develops from an intrahepatic tumor via the hepatic vein. The development of an IVC tumor thrombus with HCC recurrence, as in this case, is very rare, and based on a PubMed search, we believe this report may be the first to describe this condition.