Hepatoma in children--a clinical analysis on 15 cases.

In ten boys and five girls with hepatoma, evaluations were made as to the sex, age, pathologic findings, operation and prognoses. Ages at the time of operation ranged from 1 month to 12 years. In twelve, the tumors were successfully removed; 4 underwent left lateral segmentectomy, 4 right hepatic lobectomy and 4 trisegmentectomy. At least at the time of completion of this paper, eight of these 12 patients (66%) were alive including one patient with pulmonary metastases. Thirteen patients had hepatomas of massive type and 2 had nodular type. Histologic type of these hepatomas was hepatoblastoma in 14 cases and hepatocarcinoma (liver cell carcinoma) in one. These hepatoblastomas included 10 of the fetal type and 4 of the embryonal type. In five of 12 patients pulmonary metastases were detected after the hepatectomy. Four of these 5 patients underwent pulmonary surgery; one girl is alive with no sign of recurrence for over 8 years after surgery on both lungs. Histological examination of pulmonary lesions disclosed hepatoblastomas of an embryonal type, and such were not related to the histological types of hepatic lesions.