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Hepatoblastoma producing both alpha‐fetoprotein and human chorionic gonadotropin clinicopathologic analysis of four cases and a review of the literature
Author(s) -
Nakagawara Akira,
Ikeda Keiichi,
Tsuneyoshi Masazumi,
Daimaru Yutaka,
Enjoji Munetomo,
Watanabe Itaru,
Iwafuchi Makoto,
Sawada Tadashi
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(19851001)56:7<1636::aid-cncr2820560729>3.0.co;2-r
Subject(s) - hepatoblastoma , medicine , alpha fetoprotein , human chorionic gonadotropin , alpha (finance) , gynecology , oncology , obstetrics , hormone , surgery , hepatocellular carcinoma , construct validity , patient satisfaction
A clinicopathologic study was done of four cases of hepatoblastoma with precocious puberty, together with an analysis of 21 such cases reported in the literature. All four patients were males, the age ranging from 11 to 35 months. Three of the four patients died within 12 months after operation, but the fourth is living. Histologically, all patients had a hepatoblastoma with the coexistence of both fetal and embryonal type cells, although predominantly fetal in two and predominantly embryonal in the other two. Tumor giant cells were rarely encountered in all these cases. Both alpha‐fetoprotein (AFP) and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in the serum or urine increased in our four cases and in five other cases reported in the literature. Though the serum AFP level paralleled the severity of clinical symptoms, the serum or urine hCG did not necessarily correspond to the clinical course. It is likely that these poorly prognostic virilizing hepatoblastomas secrete two different tumor markers, AFP and hCG, from different cells, and that these functioning tumor cells may not always exist concurrently in the recurrent or metastatic tumor. Cancer 56: 1636‐1642, 1985.