Cancer 1990 Jan 1;65(1):174-6

Childhood primary hepatocellular carcinoma and hepatitis B virus infection

Cheah PL, Looi LM, Lin HP, Yap SF
Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Malaysia.

Abstract
In the 7-year period between 1980 and 1987, six cases of childhood primary
hepatocellular carcinoma (PHC) were confirmed histologically in our institution.
Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) seropositivity was confirmed in five of the
cases, and tissue HBsAg was shown in four of these using the Shikata's orcein
stain. An associated maternal HBsAg seropositivity was shown in two of the
seropositive children. The youngest seropositive patient who developed PHC was 7
years old. The mother of this patient was also seropositive. These observations
support a causal relation between childhood Hepatitis B virus infection and PHC.
The importance of vertical or perinatal transmission of HBV in the causation of
childhood PHC and the prophylactic role of childhood vaccination is emphasized.
Attention is also drawn to the relative short malignant transformation time seen
in some of these patients