Liver Tumors in Infancy and Children

Abstract

The liver is the third-most-common site for intra-abdominal malignancy in children, follow‐ ing adrenal neuroblastoma and wilms tumor. Although the overall incidence of childhood cancer has been slowly increasing since 1975, cancer in children and adolescents is still rare, the incidence of primary malignant liver tumors per year is 1-1.5 per million children in the United States [1, 2, 3, 4]. This yields a relative low rate for hepatic tumors (1.3% of all pedia‐ tric malignancies). Tumors of the liver may be either malignant or benign. Two thirds of liv‐ er tumors in children are malignant. Of these malignant tumors, hepatoblastoma (HB) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are the most common and account for 70 persent of all hep‐ atic neoplasms. Unlike liver tumors in adults, in which the predominant histology is hepato‐ cellular carcinoma, hepatoblastoma accounts for two thirds of liver tumors in children. Other liver malignancies in children include sarcomas, germ cell tumors, as well as rhab‐ doid tumors. Benign tumors of the liver in children include vascular tumors, hamartomas, adenomas, and focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH). The histology and anatomy of a pediatric liver tumor guides the treatment and prognosis [5, 6, 7, 8].