Open AccessHepatocellular carcinoma occurring in a Crohn’s disease patient
Author(s) -
Mitsuaki Ishida,
Shigeyuki Naka,
Hisanori Shiomi,
Tomoyuki Tsujikawa,
Akira Andoh,
Takeshi Nakahara,
Yasuharu Saito,
Yoshimasa Kurumi,
Mikiko Takikita-Suzuki,
Fumiyoshi Kojima,
Machiko Hotta,
Tohru Tani,
Yoshihide Fujiyama,
Hidetoshi Okabe
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
world journal of gastroenterology
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.427
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 2219-2840
pISSN - 1007-9327
DOI - 10.3748/wjg.v16.i25.3215
Subject(s) - azathioprine , medicine , hepatocellular carcinoma , cirrhosis , gastroenterology , histopathology , primary sclerosing cholangitis , liver disease , pathology , disease
We report a case of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) occurring in a patient with Crohn's disease (CD) without chronic hepatitis or liver cirrhosis, and review the clinicopathological features of HCC in CD patients. A 37-year-old Japanese man with an 8-year history of CD and a medication history of azathioprine underwent resection of a liver tumor. The histopathology of the liver tumor was pseudoglandular type HCC. In the non-neoplastic liver, focal hepatocyte glycogenosis (FHG) was observed, however, there was no evidence of liver cirrhosis or primary sclerosing cholangitis. Only nine cases of HCC in CD patients have been reported previously in the English-language literature. Eight of 10 cases (including the present case) had received azathioprine treatment, and four of these cases also showed FHG, which is considered a preneoplastic liver lesion, within the non-neoplastic liver. Although the precise mechanism of the development of HCC in CD patients is controversial, these results suggest that azathioprine therapy and FHG in the non-neoplastic liver contribute to the development of HCC. These findings also indicate that it is important to survey CD patients treated with prolonged azathioprine therapy for potential liver tumors.