Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease induced by leuprorelin acetate

Abstract

Leuprorelin acetate is an agonist of gonadotropin-releasing hormone, used as a first choice treatment in patients with prostate carcinoma. The impact of leuprorelin therapy in liver function and metabolism is largely unknown. We report about a patient who had been treated for 32 months with leuprorelin acetate, who developed a nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), associated with a focal lesion at the IV hepatic segment where histologic features appeared to be more severe. The patient, in addition to NAFLD, presented a marked iatrogenic hypotestosteronemia and full-criteria meeting the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome, including insulin resistance. The radiologic and clinical findings, the histopathologic features, and the absence of any hepatic abnormalities before treatment, support a causal role of leuprorelin in inducing metabolic derangement that, most likely secondary to androgen-deprivation, were, in turn, responsible for the development of NAFLD. In conclusion, this is the first case report of NAFLD with focal fatty liver associated with leuprorelin therapy. Patients in leuprorelin should be carefully monitored for the development of liver disease.