Hepatocellular carcinoma in young adults.

Background/aims: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is uncommon in adolescent and young adult Japanese. The aim of this study was to examine the clinicopathological analysis of Japanese young adults with HCC.

Methodology: We reviewed the cases of 11 patients with HCC who were between 13 and 40 years of age.

Results: All patients were HBs antigen-positive patients, and most of them had relatively good liver function. Eight patients (72.7%) had abdominal pain directly caused by advanced tumors. Most patients had highly advanced HCC; 9 patients (81.8%) had tumors larger than 10cm in diameter, and all had portal invasion. Nine patients had intrahepatic tumor dissemination. Among 8 patients who underwent hepatectomy 6 survived more than 1 year, and 1 patient has been alive 71 months without disease. The other 3 patients, whose tumors could not be resected, died within 5 months of diagnosis.

Conclusions: These results suggest that cases of HCC in young adults are rarely detected early because of their relatively good liver function despite their higher positive rate for HBs antigen. Therefore, early screening for cancer is particularly important in young adults who are HBs antigen-positive.