Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Portal Vein Tumor Thrombus versus Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Biliary Tumor Thrombus: Better or Worse Prognoses? [Response to Letter]

Abstract

Xin Yang,1,* Ying Zhu,1,* Xia Zhao,2,* Jian-Hua Li,1,* Da Xu,1 Hu-Liang Jia,1 Jubo Zhang3 1Department of General Surgery, Huashan Hospital & Cancer Metastasis Institute, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2Health Management Center, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Infectious Diseases, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Jubo ZhangDepartment of Infectious Diseases, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, 12 Urumqi Road (M), Shanghai, 200040, People’s Republic of ChinaTel [phone]Email [email protected] JiaDepartment of General Surgery, Huashan Hospital, Cancer Metastasis Institute, Fudan University, 12 Urumqi Road (M), Shanghai, 200040, People’s Republic of ChinaTel [phone]Email [email protected] First of all, we would like to thank Professor Chen from the Eastern Hepatobiliary Hospital for his comments. Professor Chen has put forward a lot of views and references for us, which will be the direction and focus of our future work. The prevalence, clinical characteristics, and oncology results of HCC patients with PVTT and BDTT vary greatly. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the prognosis of HCC patients with different types of tumor thrombosis to guide the treatment of patients. Although we havereceived more patients with liver cancer combined with tumor thrombi, fewer patients are truly eligible for surgery, especially those with bile duct tumor thrombi. This is also the main reason for our small sample size. Of course, a small sample may lead to one-sided conclusions, which may only be for reference. In Table 3, because there are a large number of PVTT patients, and PVTT is habitually placed first. In fact, high-risk one (BDTT) should be placed first, and it should be BDTT verse PVTT. We are verysorry, this is a small mistake in our writing, which caused misunderstanding. According to the literature data provided by ProfessorChen, the prognosis of BDTT patients does not seem to be inferior to that of PVTT patients. For a correct conclusion, it may require larger sample sizes and more retrospective studies from more centers at home and abroad. Collecting more clinical data may be more helpful for drawing correct conclusions. According to Professor Chen’s suggestions, we will collect more comprehensive clinical data for research in the future. Finally, we hope that more scholars will pay attention to and conduct research on liver cancer combined with tumor thrombi to improve the prognosis of these patients. View the original paper by Yang and colleagues This is in response to the Letter to the Editor