Abstract

During 11 years’ period, from 1958 to 1969, 6 cases of primary liver tumor under the age of 16 were encountered. According to the histologic pattern, 3 of them were diagnosed as hepatocarcinoma, 2 as mixed hepatoblastoma, and 1 as epithelial hepatoblastoma. Three cases of hepatocarcinoma were all male, with ages of 16, 16, and 13 years old, respectively. On the other hand, all three cases of hepatoblastoma were under 2 years of age, namely, 1 1/12, 1 3/12 and 10/12 years, and one of them was female. The clinical and laboratory findings were not characteristic to distinguish the two types of tumors except the age distribution. A review of the literature was made, and it was stressed that hepatoblastoma has better prognosis than hepatocarcinoma.