Hepatocellular carcinoma in chronic hepatitis C in the absence of advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis.

Objective: The objective of our study was to describe the cross-sectional imaging appearance of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in the absence of advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis.

Materials And Methods: This study is a retrospective review of our surgical database to identify patients with chronic HCV infection and HCC who underwent hepatectomy and who had undergone preoperative CT or MRI. Only patients with a Metavir fibrosis score of F0, F1, or F2 on pathology were included. Patients with hepatitis B virus coinfection or other causes of chronic liver disease and patients with histopathologic evidence of advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis (Metavir scores F3 and F4) were excluded. Contrast-enhanced CT or MRI examinations performed within 2 months before surgery were reviewed for the number, size, and location of tumors; tumor enhancement characteristics; and presence of macrovascular invasion.

Results: Two hundred forty-five resections of HCC in patients with HCV were performed in our institution from 1987 to 2012. Of this group, 26 patients (10.6%) had a Metavir fibrosis score of F0, F1, or F2; of those patients, 19 (18 men and one woman; 18 non-Asian patients and one Asian patient; mean age, 64 years) had imaging studies available for review. Twenty-one HCCs (mean size, 4.5 cm; range, 0.9-14.8 cm) were evaluated at imaging. Typical wash-in and washout characteristics were seen in 16 of 19 viable lesions (84.2%). The remaining two HCCs were completely necrotic after transarterial chemoembolization. Eighteen patients had a solitary tumor. Most tumors (15/21, 71.4%) developed in the right hepatic lobe.

Conclusion: HCC can develop in patients with chronic HCV without advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis, most frequently in older non-Asian men, and usually appears as a large solitary tumor with a typical wash-in-washout enhancement pattern.