A Case of Hepatoid Adenocarcinoma without Involving Liver Parenchyme

Yoon Hee Jun*, Tae Hun Kim*, Kum Hei Ryu*, So Yeon Lim*, Ju Ho Lee**, Shi Nae Lee***

Copyright ⓒ 2007. Ewha Womans University School of Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Mar 30, 2007

Abstract

Hepatoid adenocarcinoma was described by Ishikura in 1985 for the first time. It is a very rare variant of adenocarcinoma characterized by morphological and functional features of hepatocyte differentiation. It is most commonly presented as gastric adenocarcinoma with otherwise unexplained elevation of serum alpha-fetoprotein level. Most of the patients with gastric hepatoid adenocarcinoma were diagnosed in advanced stages having vascular invasion and/or extensive metastasis in liver or lymph nodes. Accordingly, the prognosis of hepatoid adenocarcinoma is dismal. We experienced a typical case of gastric hepatoid adenocarcinoma and described the clinical features.

Keywords: Hepatoid adenocarcinoma; Alpha-fetoprotein