Fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma in mexican patients

Abstract

The aim of this report is to describe the frequency, clinical, and morphologic characteristics of fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma in Mexican patients. Fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma (FLHCC) is a rare variant of hepatocellular carcinoma. Although this tumor appears to be predominant among the Caucasian population of the U.S, FLHCC has been described in many other countries. The frequency and characteristics of FLHCC in Latin American population is almost unknown. The clinico-pathologic characteristics of seven (5.8%) Mexican patients with FLHCC, obtained among 121 hepato-cellular carcinomas are described. The frequency of these tumors was compared with the frequency reported in other geographic areas in the international literature between 1980 and 1999. There were four women and three men. Two patients had taken oral contraceptives for six months and a year prior to diagnosis; another patient had positive serology for the hepatitis B virus. Common symptoms included a palpable mass, abdominal pain and weight loss; two patients presented jaundice. In two patients the tumor had been removed eight and three years previously, and they were readmitted when FLHCC recurred. In three patients the diagnosis was suspected in radiological studies (computed tomography and/or magnetic resonance). Laboratory tests were non-specific. In four patients, resection of the tumor was performed, and in the remaining three the neoplasm was diagnosed by percutaneous hepatic biopsy. Two patients had died of disease at the time of the study, and another was alive with recurrent disease.

Conclusions: fibrolamellar hepatocarcinoma is an uncommon, but not an exceptional neoplasm in our population and represents 5.8% of all hepatocarcinomas reviewed.