Hepatoblastoma in neonates: report of a case and review of the Japanese literature.

A female infant who presented with abdominal distention and jaundice at the age of 2 days underwent resection of a large hepatoblastoma at the age of 8 days by a right trisegmentectomy. Although postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy was not given, the patient is now alive without disease 10 months after surgery. We were able to find only 10 other cases of hepatoblastoma occurring in the newborn period in the Japanese literature. Resection of the tumor was performed in seven of these patients, of whom there were five survivors, one operative death and one death due to tumor recurrence. However, none of the three patients treated conservatively survived. Thus, we suggest that in newborns with hepatoblastoma, resection of the tumor should be performed, if feasible, but believe that postoperative chemotherapy is not necessary for patients whose tumor has been completely resected.