The prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)is poor,and tumor thrombus in the portal vein or in the bile duct is an important influencing factor.Approximately 30%of HCC patients are found to have portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT)when diagnosed,and their median survival time is about 2.7-4.0 months if they do not receive any treatment.The incidence of HCC complicated with bile duct tumor thrombus (BDTT)is less than 10%,while the prognosis is dismal.Once tumor thrombus extends to the major bile ducts,obstructive jaundice and subsequent hepatic dysfunction are inevitable.The survival time of patients with HCC complicated with BDTT is less than 4 months if they only receive palliative biliary stenting.The management of HCC complicated with PVTT or BDTT is challenging with controversy at present.Different treatment approaches and their benefits for patients with HCC complicated with PVTT or BDTT are introduced in this paper.

The management of hilar cholangiocarcinoma was challenging to the surgeons due to difficult operations and low resection rate.Recently,a new mode of multidisciplinary team (MDT) is applied to the diagnosis and treatment of hilar cholangiocarcinoma,which leads to significant changes and development of the diagnosis and treatment for hilar cholangiocarcinoma.In this article,the authors first introduced the recent application of MDT treatment for hilar cholangiocarcinoma on diagnostic methods,staging systems,evaluation for resectability,radical resection,application of liver transplantation and other systematic therapies.Considering the complexity of hilar cholangiocarcinoma,a surgery-centered MDT for hilar cholangiocarcinoma is important and should be promoted.

Translational medicine is a new concept in China.It sets up a bridge between basic research and clinical work,and aims to transfer the basic study results to clinical practice as soon as possible.It is necessary for a surgeon to master the research idea of translational medicine in order to be expert in science and technique.Many unsolved clinical problems could be found in routine work,which is an advantage for translational medicine research.How to raise questions in routine clinical work and get these questions resolved in laboratory,and then apply the results to clinical work is a demand for surgeons nowadays.In this article,the research idea of translational medicine is introduced based on an example of the research on the relationship between rapamycin and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Objective Misdiagnosis of benign hepatic mass as malignancy is not infrequent. This study was to improve the clinical diagnosis by reviewing our clinical data for space occupying hepatic lesions. Methods In this study 545 patients undergoing hepatic resection for suspected malignant hepatic lesions were retrospectively studied from Jan 1998 to Jun 2004. All patients were pre-operatively assessed with plasma tumor makers, ultrasonography, computed tomography or magnetic resornance imaging. Percutaneous liver biopsy was employed in selected patients. Final pathological data was reviewed to evaluate preoperative diagnosis. Results Twenty-four out of 545 patients were pathologically diagnosed as with benign lesion. Preoperative misdiagnosis involved atypical radiological characteristics, incomprehensive clinical data and inexperienced recognition for liver lesions. Two of 24 cases suffered from minor post-operative complications, and there was no mortality. No recurrence was found by a mean follow-up of 3 years and 1 month. Conclusions Some benign hepatic lesions are easily misdiagnosed as malignant tumor. Appropriate use of multimodality examination in combination with correct algorithm of diagnostic protocol could improve diagnostic accuracy in cases of benign solid space occupying lesions of the liver.

Hepatolithiasis is still a common biliary disease in China with unknown pathogenesis and poor long-term outcomes.Surgery is probably the only curative treatment to hepatolithiasis.However,surgeons and patients cannot keep trouble from high recurrence and reoperation rates after surgery.Hepatolithiasis is a serious disease,which can cause cholangitis,liver abscess,liver cirrhosis,and even cholangiocarcinoma.Sphincter of Oddi,which controls the unidirectional outflow of bile and separates the bile duct from the bacteria-filled intestinal tract,is thought to be a gatekeeper of the almost-sterile biliary tract.Dysfunction of sphincter of Oddi,including stenosis,spasm and laxity,is closely associated with biliary disease,A lax sphincter of Oddi will aggravate bilioenteric reflux,leading to biliary infection and calculi development eventually.This issue has gradually gained enough attention.How to evaluate sphincter of Oddi function reliably and restore or replace its function,which is key to treat hepatolithiasis and prevent its recurrence,remain unclear.

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is a highly lethal disease with a high morbidity and dismal prognosis.A multidisciplinary consultation based on evidence-based medicine has become the main modality for treatment of pancreatic adenocarcinoma.National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) clinical practice guidelines in oncology has been widely recognized and implemented.Recently,the guidelines (version 1.2017) in oncology have been published by NCCN.This article will summarize and interpret the updates of the new version of the NCCN guideline for pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

This paper discussed that how to cultivate high-quality medical talents by the use of basic education,medical moral education and psychologic education etc.

Pancreatic cancer is a highly malignant tumor with a high mortality.Surgery is the only potential hope of cure for patients with pancreatic cancer.Imaging examination plays an essential role in both the early diagnosis and preoperative assessment.Accurate tumor staging has guiding significance for clinical practice.Appropriate therapeutic schedule will be selected according to the tumor staging,and then patients' prognosis can be evaluated.Recently,the TNM staging systems for pancreatic cancer have been updated by American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC).Major changes were made in the T and N staging.This article will review the updates of the 8th edition of AJCC cancer staging for pancreatic cancer from radiography aspect.

Objective This study is to summarize the experience of microsurgical reconstruction for donor liver anatomical variations of hepatic arteries in orthotopic liver transplantation. Methods During the bench surgery, the anatomy of donors′ hepatic arteries was carefully examined and microsurgical techniques were used for the anomalous arteries. The graft arterial flow was checked by Doppler ultrasound daily in the first week in postoperative period and periodically thereafter. Results The arterial anatomy was anomalousin 20 out of 141 (14%) donor livers. Nine cases (6.3%) needed arterial reconstruction. In these cases, 7(4.9%) aberrant right hepatic arteries originating from superior mesenteric artery were anastomosed to gastro-duodenal arteries and another two aberrant hepatic left or right arteries were anastomosed to the stump of the donor splenic arteries. Conclusions The variations of hepatic arteries in donors are common. To obtain the ideal arterial supply of liver graft, both careful checking on the origin of donor's artery and appropriate plastic performance with refined microsurgical techniques are necessary.

Objective To study the inhibitory effects of δ-opioid receptor activation in serumdeprivation induced apoptosis of human liver cells and the proposed protein kinase C(PKC)pathway mechanism.Methods MTT assay was used to detect the survival rate of human liver cells in vitro and Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining was used to detect the cell apoptosis rate.Flow cytometry was used to analyze cell cycle,RT PCR used to analyze the PKC mRNA and Western Blot analysis was used for detecting the protein expression of PKC and Caspase-3.Results After serum-deprivation for 48h of cultured human liver cells in vitro,significant liver cell apoptosis occurred.The apoptosis was suppressed by δ-opioid receptor activation,which manifested as a slower rate of apoptosis,decreased expression of Caspase-3and increased expression of PKC.After GF109203X was added,the inhibitory effects of DADLE decreased markedly.Conclusion Activation of δ-opioid receptor on the membrane of human liver cells has inhibitory effects on serum-deprivation induced apoptosis of liver cells.The underlying mechanism may be associated with PKC pathway activation.