Case of hepatocellular carcinoma with abdominis muscle metastasis

: A 73-year-old man with liver cirrhosis type C, who was diagnosed as having hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), underwent left lobectomy in March 2005. Two years later, intrahepatic recurrence was found, and he was treated with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization as well as hepatic arterial infusion. In July 2007, he complained of a painless mass over the right abdomen and demonstrated an elevated serum alpha-fetoprotein level. Computed tomography demonstrated a 3.0 cm lesion in the rectus muscle of the abdomen, which was histologically diagnosed as an intramuscular metastasis of HCC. Because there was no history of percutaneous abdominal procedures in this patient, it was suggested that this tumor had hematogeneously metastasized to the rectus muscle of the abdomen.