Successful management of metachronous liver metastasis after pancreaticoduodectomy for pancreatic ductal carcinoma using hepatectomy and chemotherapy: a case report.

A 63-year-old woman was admitted to our Hospital for treatment of pancreatic head ductal carcinoma, and underwent pancreaticoduodedectomy (PD) in October 2007. At one month after surgery, she received systemic adjuvant chemotherapy using S-1 for three months. Because the serum carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) value was elevated at 23 months after surgery, the patient underwent systemic chemotherapy using gemcitabine. The serum CA19-9 decreased, but abdominal Computed Tomography (CT) revealed a hepatic metastasis in the ventrolateral segment of left hepatic lobe at 28 months after surgery. The chemotherapy was changed to oral S-1. At 35 months after surgery, abdominal CT revealed reduction of liver metastasis and that the serum CA19-9 was normalized, but chemotherapy had to be withdrawn because of severe myelosuppression. Because of her good general condition, the patient underwent partial hepatectomy for the liver metastasis. Histopathological examination demonstrated a complete response. Thirty six months after hepatectomy and 6 years after PD, the patient remains well without recurrence. We herein report a case of successful treatment for metachronous liver metastasis from pancreatic ductal carcinoma after PD by chemotherapy and hepatectomy and review the current literature.