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Background We experience many cases of liver metastasis from colorectal cancer, but synchronous occurrence of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) and liver metastasis from a rectal cancer is extremely rare. We herein report a case of ICC coinciding with a liver metastasis from a known rectal carcinoma. Case presentation A 68-year-old man was referred to our hospital for investigation of multiple liver tumors. Total colonoscopy and computed tomography (CT) revealed a rectal carcinoma, coinciding with liver metastasis. He was planned to receive chemotherapy following rectal resection. During chemotherapy for the rectal cancer, one of the liver tumors gradually grew after first shrinking. The following hepatectomy revealed the presence of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC). Despite intensive chemotherapy for the ICC, he passed away 6 months after the hepatectomy. Conclusions We should also suspect the possibility of multiple primary cancers, even if the patient has a history of cancer that is likely to cause metastatic lesions. When simultaneous neoplasms are diagnosed, systematic treatment should be targeted to the tumor with the worst prognosis.

Pseudolymphoma is a benign lymphocytic tumor-like lesion, and its occurrence in the liver is rare. Here, we report the case of a 78-year-old woman with pseudolymphoma of the liver. She had a history of tremors for several years. Therefore, she underwent computed tomography (CT) for screening, and liver tumors were incidentally identified. She did not have any history of liver disease. Liver function test results and tumor marker levels were all within normal limits, and viral markers for hepatitis were negative. Contrast-enhanced CT revealed four nodules measuring up to 13 mm in diameter with ring enhancement in both lobes of the liver. On magnetic resonance imaging, the lesions showed slightly high intensity on T2-weighted images and high intensity on diffusion-weighted images. Because of atypical imaging findings, the tumors could not be definitively diagnosed. Therefore, we performed laparoscopic limited resection of segments 2, 3, 4, and 8 of the liver. The final pathological diagnosis was pseudolymphoma of the liver. The patient has had no signs of recurrence for 6 months after the surgery. Although pseudolymphoma of the liver is rare, it is necessary to consider it in the differential diagnosis of a liver tumor.

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 α-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.