Hepatoblastoma is a malignant liver cancer occurring in infants and children and composed of tissue resembling fetal liver cells, mature liver cells, or bile duct cells. They usually present with an abdominal mass. The disease is most commonly diagnosed during a child's first three years of life.[1]Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels are commonly elevated, but when AFP is not elevated at diagnosis the prognosis is poor.[2]
Signs and symptoms
Patients are usually asymptomatic at diagnosis.[3] As a result, disease is often advanced at diagnosis.
Pathophysiology
Hepatoblastomas originate from immature liver precursor cells, are typically unifocal, affect the right lobe of the liver more often than the left lobe, and can metastasize. They are categorized into two types: "Epithelial Type" and "Mixed Epithelial / Mesenchymal Type."[citation needed]
Recently, other components of the Wnt signaling pathway have also demonstrated a likely role in constitutive activation of this pathway in the causation of hepatoblastoma.[8][9] Accumulating evidence suggests that hepatoblastoma is derived from a pluripotent stem cell.[10]
The most common method of testing for hepatoblastoma is a blood test checking the alpha-fetoprotein level. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is used as a biomarker to help determine the presence of liver cancer in children. At birth, infants have relatively high levels of AFP, which fall to normal adult levels by the second year of life. The normal level for AFP in children has been reported as lower than 50 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) and 10 ng/ml in adults. An AFP level greater than 500 ng/ml is a significant indicator of hepatoblastoma. AFP is also used as an indicator of treatment success. If treatments are successful in removing the cancer, the AFP level is expected to return to normal.[12]
Treatment
Surgical removal of the tumor, neoadjuvantchemotherapy prior to tumor removal, and liver transplantation have been used to treat these cancers.[13][14] Primary liver transplantation provides high, long term, disease-free survival rate in the range of 80%, in cases of complete tumor removal and adjuvant chemotherapy survival rates approach 100%.[15][16] The presence of metastases is the strongest predictor of a poor prognosis.[17]
^De Ioris M, Brugieres L, Zimmermann A, Keeling J, Brock P, Maibach R, et al. (March 2008). "Hepatoblastoma with a low serum alpha-fetoprotein level at diagnosis: the SIOPEL group experience". European Journal of Cancer. 44 (4): 545–550. doi:10.1016/j.ejca.2007.11.022. PMID18166449.
^Hirschman BA, Pollock BH, Tomlinson GE (August 2005). "The spectrum of APC mutations in children with hepatoblastoma from familial adenomatous polyposis kindreds". The Journal of Pediatrics. 147 (2): 263–266. doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2005.04.019. PMID16126064.
^Sanders RP, Furman WL (November 2006). "Familial adenomatous polyposis in two brothers with hepatoblastoma: implications for diagnosis and screening". Pediatric Blood & Cancer. 47 (6): 851–854. doi:10.1002/pbc.20556. PMID16106429. S2CID34824663.
^Ruck P, Xiao JC (November 2002). "Stem-like cells in hepatoblastoma". Medical and Pediatric Oncology. 39 (5): 504–507. doi:10.1002/mpo.10175. PMID12228907.
^Zimmerman A, Saxena R. Hepatoblastoma. In: WHO Classification of Tumours of the Digestive System, 4th, Bosman FT, Carneiro F, Hruban RH, Theise ND (Eds), IARC, Lyon 2010. p.229.
^Ang JP, Heath JA, Donath S, Khurana S, Auldist A (February 2007). "Treatment outcomes for hepatoblastoma: an institution's experience over two decades". Pediatric Surgery International. 23 (2): 103–109. doi:10.1007/s00383-006-1834-1. PMID17119981. S2CID11332782.
^Otte JB, Pritchard J, Aronson DC, Brown J, Czauderna P, Maibach R, et al. (January 2004). "Liver transplantation for hepatoblastoma: results from the International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP) study SIOPEL-1 and review of the world experience". Pediatric Blood & Cancer. 42 (1): 74–83. doi:10.1002/pbc.10376. PMID14752798. S2CID20741138.
^Otte JB, de Ville de Goyet J, Reding R (October 2005). "Liver transplantation for hepatoblastoma: indications and contraindications in the modern era". Pediatric Transplantation. 9 (5): 557–565. doi:10.1111/j.1399-3046.2005.00354.x. PMID16176410. S2CID74339.