Oxaliplatin-related sinusoidal obstruction syndrome mimicking metastatic liver tumors

Abstract

A 40-year-old woman who had undergone a curative low anterior resection for advanced rectal cancer was admitted to our hospital. She had been administrated oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy as postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy. The contrast-enhanced computed tomography revealed three hypovascular tumors, 3.0, 1.5 and 1.0 cm in diameter, located in the right hepatic lobe. The hepatocyte phase of the gadoxetic acid-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated these lesions as hypointense tumors relative to the surrounding hepatic parenchyma. All these findings of the preoperative imaging modalities were compatible to metastatic liver tumors from the rectal cancer, and right hepatic lobectomy was successfully performed. Histopathologically, the tumors revealed sinusoidal dilation and severe congestion outlined by atrophic hepatocyte trabeculae, which was known as peliosis hepatis. The perisinusoidal space of Disse was extensively dilated and contained many erythrocytes. Taking these findings into account, the hepatic tumors were considered to be the space-occupying lesions resulting from the sinusoidal obstruction syndrome. We herein report the first case of focal sinusoidal obstruction syndrome mimicking metastatic liver tumors.