A CASE OF LIVER CELL ADENOMA

We experineced a case of liver cell adenoma which was resected after having been observed for about 6 years, in a 75-year-old man. In 1990 the patient had had a malignant lymphoma and a remission had been attained by 5 courses of CHOP, when a low-density tumor shadow 2cm in diameter was noted in the S6 of the liver on abdominal CT. Needle aspiration biopsy cytology was conducted with a suspicion of HCC, but no definitive diagnosis was made. Then, the patient was periodically followed up by abdominal CT, ultrasonography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In 1996, the tumor had enlarged to 5cm in diameter on imagings and a possible malignancy was unable to be ruled out with a needle biopsy. A segmentectomy (S6) including the tumor was carried out. The resected tumor was capsulated, and the section was segmented and yellowish brown with a part of green in color, without central cicatrix. Histological findings included proliferation of tumor cells with trabecular arrangement like hepatic cell which was light in color and poor in atypia, and normal liver except the tumor. So the definite diagnosis of liver cell adenoma was made. Liver cell adenoma presents a problem of differentiation from FNH and highly differentiated HCC. The disease is a relatively rare benign tumor of the liver in this country, and so the case of the disease is reported, together with a review of the literature.