Recently, the General Surgery Department of Peking University Shougang Hospital successfully conducted an operation of huge liver tumor resection. The size of the removed tumor was 26 cm x 20 cm x 20 cm and the weight was 5.7kg. The patient recovered and was discharged seven days later.

The male patient from Yuncheng, Shandong Province, China had been diagnosed with hepatitis B before. He went to the hospital for treatment after he found a large bulge in his abdomen. A huge liver tumor was discovered by CT scan and it was about as big as a rugby ball. The patient had become thin to a visible extent with his abdomen wall clearly exhibiting the outline of the tumor. The patient had been sent to several provincial-level and municipal-level Grade-A tertiary hospitals; many experts thought there had been no opportunity left for any operation and advised him to give up the treatment because the tumor was so huge that it had almost occupied the whole upper abdomen, having the liver fully lost its normal anatomical structures and was so close to the surrounding organs. Depressed as they were, he and his family members still had a strong desire to find the way out. They found Professor Leng Jianjun of the General Surgery Department of Peking University Shougang Hospital for help on the recommendation of other patients.

Professor Leng met him at the outpatient department. After a careful look at the X-ray film, he found that resection was feasible. Having the patient hospitalized, all the experts of the department discussed this case for many times while doctors of other departments also provided their suggestions, followed by a conclusion that to resect the liver tumor was the only way to save his life. After an effective communication, his family members agreed the operation plan and promised to assist doctors in the interventional therapy afterward.

On June 26, the patient was sent to the operating room with everything being well-prepared. The operation lasted in total for three hours and a half. The patient was cared for in an intensive care unit for only one day after the operation and then was transferred to an ordinary ward. He recovered without any complication and was discharged seven days after the operation. This case can be categorized to an extreme example of liver tumor resection.

It is understood that Professor Leng as the chief expert of the PLA General Hospital closely cooperates with relevant departments and has led his team to successfully conducted over 50 complex operations of liver or spleen tumor resection in a short period of time, including the pancreaticoduodenectomy combined with vascular resection and reconstruction, hepatic portal cholangiocarcinoma radical resection, radical cholecystectomy, 3D laparoscopic left and right hemihepatectomy, liver caudate lobe tumorectomy, and radical resection combining laparoscopic colorectal cancer with hepatic metastases. This extreme case of successful liver resection marks the great progress Peking University Shougang Hospital has made in diagnosing and treating the complicated and difficult liver cancer.