Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in children was rarely reported and usually included with hepatoblastoma in most studies of pediatric liver malignancies despite different clinical behaviors. The authors report their experience in pediatric HCC and discuss its differences from adult HCC.
Methods: A retrospective review of radiographic, laboratory, pathological, and therapeutic data in 55 children with HCC was performed. The liver function was graded by modified Child's classification. Kaplan-Meier survival curves in various therapeutic and Child's groups were plotted, and log-rank test was used to detect differences among survival curves.
Results: Although children with HCC mostly presented with advanced disease at diagnosis, disturbances of liver function were unremarkable. Sixty-eight percent of cases concurred with liver cirrhosis. The median survivals for resectable, chemotherapeutic, and untreated HCCs were 23, 3, and 2 months, respectively. Resectable HCC significantly posed a much better prognosis. However, the resectability was unsatisfactory (18.2%). Resection was limited because of anatomic unfeasibility including bilateral involvement (62.5%), portal vein thrombi (41.7%), distant metastasis (29.1%), para-aortic lymphadenopathy (18.8%), inferior vena cava thrombi (16.7%), and hilar invasion (6.3%). Distant metastasis was the most ominous for survival in children with unresectable HCC.
Conclusions: HCC behaved somewhat differently between children and adults. Surgical resection represented the best hope of long-term survival. The outcome in children could not keep up with that in adults because of a diagnostic delay. Hence, alpha-fetoprotein and sonography screening in carrier children should be worthwhile.