The effect of chemotherapy on hepatoblastoma.

A 15-month-old girl had a case of mixed hepatoblastoma. The unresectable tumor became surgically resectable after treatment with doxorubicin hydrochloride and cisplatin, which was also continued postoperatively. This regimen had a remarkable necrotizing effect on the fetal epithelial component of the hepatoblastoma. The patient's high alpha-fetoprotein level and extreme thrombocytosis, which resolved with treatment, were used as indicators of the disease's activity. An unaffected mesenchymal component and a few microscopic foci of undisturbed embryonal hepatoblastoma were found. The finding of a mature intestinal epithelial island in this case is unique.