Abstract
We report a case of huge hepatocellular carcinoma detected after childbirth in a 39-year-old woman. She had felt persistent upper abdominal swelling after childbirth, and a liver tumor was pointed out by a primary care doctor. So she was referred to our hospital. Close examination showed a huge 13cm-sized hepatocellular carcinoma occupying the entire left lobe of the liver. Considered the primary to avoid tumor rupture, laparotomy was performed on a semi-urgent operation referral to our department. Self-destruction of the tumor had already confirmed by the bloody ascites in the abdominal cavity, and we performed left lobectomy of the liver and a partial resection of S8. The resected tumor was poorly differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma of infiltrative type. She had good postoperative course and was discharged on day 10. Currently as of the 11th month after the surgery, she has been on chemotherapy. Malignancy, especially hepatocellular carcinoma, during pregnancy is very rare. Since rapidly growing tumors might be caused by the pregnancy-associated hormones such as estrogen, we conducted an immunohistochemical study of the resected specimen in this case.
