Benign tumors of the liver

Our plain-English summary of Benign tumors of the liver, by K.G. Ishak, L. Rabin (The Medical Clinics of North America, 1975).

The study

• Authors: K.G. Ishak, L. Rabin
• Journal: The Medical Clinics of North America
• Published: 1975;59(4):995-1013
• Cited by: 494 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This article was a review of benign (non-cancerous) tumors of the liver. It combined published reports with cases on file at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Washington, D.C. It did not discuss asbestos. For nodular hyperplasia, the authors studied 130 AFIP cases. Of these 130 patients, 26 (20.0 per cent) had signs and symptoms from the tumor, and follow-up of 31 patients showed no recurrence or malignancy after surgery. There were 75 AFIP hepatocellular adenomas, all in women. Of these 75 patients, 17 (22.7 per cent) were first admitted with signs of bleeding into the abdomen from rupture of the tumor. Follow-up of 22 patients showed no recurrence or malignant change. All 68 AFIP bile duct adenomas were incidental findings. The authors also described two benign mesotheliomas of the liver in one 34-year-old woman who died suddenly of pulmonary embolism. No exposure history was given. The authors concluded there was no current evidence that hepatocellular adenoma leads to liver cancer. They noted that a survey of AFIP patients was under way to study a possible link with oral contraceptives.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Narrative review of benign liver tumors, including the authors' analysis of case series on file at the AFIP
• Who was studied: Patients with benign liver tumors in AFIP files (Washington, D.C.), including 130 with nodular hyperplasia, 75 with hepatocellular adenoma (all women), 68 with bile duct adenoma, 7 with bile duct cystadenoma, 22 with mesenchymal hamartoma, and smaller numbers of other tumors. Dates of the cases were not given.
• Main results:
  • Nodular hyperplasia: 26 of the 130 AFIP patients (20.0 per cent) had signs and symptoms attributable to the tumor.
  • Nodular hyperplasia: follow-up of 31 AFIP patients showed no recurrence or malignancy after surgery.
  • Nodular hyperplasia: 65 of the 130 AFIP cases occurred before oral contraceptives came into clinical use.
  • Hepatocellular adenoma: 17 of the 75 AFIP patients (22.7 per cent) were first admitted with circulatory collapse and signs of bleeding into the abdomen from rupture of the tumor.
  • Hepatocellular adenoma: follow-up of 22 AFIP patients showed no recurrence or malignant transformation.
  • Bile duct adenoma: all 68 AFIP cases were incidental findings, at laparotomy (29 patients) or autopsy (39 cases).
  • Benign mesothelioma of the liver: the authors studied two such tumors in one 34-year-old woman, who died suddenly of pulmonary embolism. No exposure history was reported.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that, based on their experience and published reports, there was no evidence that hepatocellular adenoma is a precursor of hepatocellular carcinoma. They stated that an epidemiologic survey of AFIP patients was under way to address a possible relationship with oral contraceptives.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Follow-up of the hepatocellular adenoma patients was limited to 22 patients.
  • No hepatic angiography results were available for any AFIP patient with hepatocellular adenoma.
  • Whether the gall bladder disease seen in nodular hyperplasia patients was a true increase could not be assessed, because cholecystectomy was usually the reason for the surgery.

Related studies

• On the histopathology of liver and liver tumours in thorium-dioxide patients — J. Visfeldt, H. Poulsen (1972)
• Hepatic tumors of long duration with eventual metastases. Two cases of leiomyosarcomatosis possibly arising from hamartomas of liver — R.A. Echevarria, V.M. Arean, et al. (1978)
• Solitary fibrous tumor of the liver: a clinicopathologic and immunohistochemical study of nine cases — C.A. Moran, K.G. Ishak, et al. (1998)
• Benign cystic mesothelioma of the liver — P. Flemming, T. Becker, et al. (2002)
• Wilson disease, ABCC2 c.3972C > T polymorphism and primary liver cancers: suggestions from a familial cluster — G. Brandi, A. Rizzo, et al. (2020)
• Giant solitary fibrous tumor of the liver with metastasis to the skeletal system successfully treated with trisegmentectomy — S. Yilmaz, V. Kirimlioglu, et al. (2000)

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