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Case Reports
. 2022 Sep;11(9):3434-3439.
doi: 10.21037/tcr-22-314.

Primary hepatic paraganglioma mimicking hepatocellular carcinoma: a case report

Li Li  1 , Pei-Pei Fei  1 , Zhi-Yun Guo  1 , Juan Wang  1 , Ze-Ya Pan  2 , Cheng-Gang Xu  1 , Jian Huang  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Primary hepatic paraganglioma mimicking hepatocellular carcinoma: a case report

Li Li et al. Transl Cancer Res. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Primary hepatic paraganglioma (HPGL) originates from sympathetic nervous tissue in the liver. It is one of an exceedingly rare kind of sympathetic paragangliomas. The radiological features and clinical characters of HPGL can be easily confused with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We present a case of HCC that was preoperatively diagnosed as hepatic paraganglioma, however, was pathologically verified as hepatic paraganglioma after surgery.

Case description: The present case reported a 47-year-old female with a very rare HPGL without any clinical symptoms, except for hyper menorrhagia and paroxysmal hypertension. The Spiegelman lobe of the liver underwent hepatic magnetic resonance imaging, which revealed a 3.2×3.8 cm mass, with uneven arterial phase wash-in and rapid portal and delayed phase wash-out. According to the imaging results, the patient was first diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma, and a radical hepatectomy was performed. However, the blood pressure of the patient displayed dramatic changes when the tumor was stimulated in operation. There were no substantial abnormalities found in the bilateral renal and adrenal glands. Therefore, we presumed that the tumor was related to functional pheochromocytoma. The tumor tissue was shown to be positive for chromogranin A, synaptophysin, CD56, and vimentin by immunohistochemical analysis. As a result, the patient was diagnosed with HPGL after this pathologic evaluation.

Conclusions: There are several similarities between HPGL and HCC. For the treatment of hepatic paraganglioma, surgical excision is the recommended practice. Although the majority of paragangliomas are benign, long-term monitoring is required to differentiate benign from malignant paragangliomas.

Keywords: Paraganglioma; case report; hepatocellular carcinoma; liver; surgery.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://tcr.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/tcr-22-314/coif). All authors report that this study was supported by the program of Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Grant No. 19ZR1400100). The authors have no other conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Liver magnetic resonance imaging scans. T2-weighted image (A) showed the mass with high intensity. Diffusion-weighted image (B) revealed the mass with restricted diffusion. Arterial phase (C) displayed the tumor was hyper-enhanced. Portal phase (D) indicated the tumor was de-enhanced. (Shown by the white arrows).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Positron emission tomography-computed tomography scans showed a low-density mass in the Spiegelman lobe with increased fluorodeoxyglucose metabolism.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Gross appearance of the mass.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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