A CASE OF ANGIOMYOLIPOMA OF THE LIVER DETECTED DURING TREATMENT FOR AN ADVANCED BREAST CANCER

Abstract

A 68-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital because of a giant advanced breast cancer presumably in the terminal stage. Endocrine chemotherapy was successful and the patient was discharged very much improved. During her hospital stay, abdominal ultrasonography revealed a high echogenic tumor in the S2 segment of liver, for which further close examination was performed. Simple CT scan visualized the tumor as low density area. On dynamic CT scan, a part of the tumor was visualized as the same density as vessel in the early phase and a wash out in an early period was also seen. Since a suspicion of hepatocellular carcinoma with fatty degeneration was not ruled out, a percutaneous biopsy of the liver was carried out. It was histopathologically diagnosed as angiomyolipoma of the liver, and so we decided to observe the clinical course in this patient.
Angiomyolipoma of the liver is a rare entity and often poses a problem of differential diagnosis from hepatocellular carcinoma. This case of the disease detected during treatment of breast cancer is presented together with a review of the literature. It is thought that the disease may be increasingly detected during treatment of other diseases with an advance in imaging diagnoses. We must strive to attain the definite diagnosis by every examination including percutaneous hepatic biopsy and to select therapeutic guideline.