AFP Negative Cystic Liver Lesion in a Child Should Let One Think of Hepatoblastoma

Summary: AFP is still the most important serologic marker for thehepatoblastoma as the most common liver tumor in children. AnAFP negative hepatoblastoma is rare. We present the firstdocumented case of an infant with an AFP negative and cysticliver lesion later diagnosed as a fetal hepatoblastoma.Key Words: hepatoblastoma, cystic liver lesion, AFP negative (J Pediatr Hematol Oncol 2011;33:e245–e247) M alignant hepatoblastoma, as the most common livertumor in children, has an incidence of 0.6/100000.Most of the children are between 6 months to 3 years of ageat the point of diagnosis, male patients preferred overfemale patients 1.5 to 1.0. 1 The prognosis mostly dependson the extension of the tumor disease at the point ofdiagnosis and the completeness of surgical resection. 2 Metastases that have already been set in 20% of patientsat the point of diagnosis, are most often found in the lungs,furthermore rarely in CNS and eyes. 2–4 The histologicsubtype and the serologic concentration of AFP have alsoshown importance for the outcome.