Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Solinas, Antonio
• Calvisi, Diego F

Titel

Lessons from rare tumors: Hepatic lymphoepithelioma-like carcinomas

Ist Teil von

• World journal of gastroenterology : WJG, 2015-03, Vol.21 (12), p.3472-3479

Ort / Verlag

United States: Baishideng Publishing Group Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2015

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek - Frei zugängliche E-Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• In this review we focus on lymphoepitheliomalike hepatocellular carcinomas(LEL-HCC) and lymphoepithelioma-like cholangiocarcinomas(LEL-ICC). Despite their rarity, these tumors are of general interest because of their epidemiological and clinical features, and because they represent a distinct model of interaction between the immune systemand neoplastic cells. Approximately half of LELHCC arise in the context of chronic hepatitis C virus(HCV) infection and have been described both in Eastern and Western patients. By contrast, LEL-ICC is associated in almost all cases with Epstein-Barr virus(EBV) infection and exhibits the same epidemiological features of EBV related malignancies. Compared with classical hepatocellular carcinoma and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma of corresponding stage, both LEL-HCC and LEL-ICC are characterized by lower rates of recurrence after surgery and better overall survival. How this behavior is related to distinct genetic alterations and tumor microenvironment is unclear. The pathophysiological mechanisms of lymphoid infiltrations seem to be different among the two groups of tumors. In fact, LEL-HCC frequently arises in the context of inflammatory changes driven by HCV infection, and has been recognized as a variant of classical hepatocellular carcinoma. At variance, lymphocyte recruitment of LEL-ICC is similar to that described in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and gastric LEL, and possibly depends on the expression pattern of latent EBV infection.