The Evolving Role of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Hepatic Neoplasia: Inflammatory Hepatocellular Adenoma in a Man with Metabolic Syndrome

Abstract

Growing awareness of the spectrum of liver diseases related to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has drawn attention to the complex pathogenetic pathways that are operative in livers with macrovesicular steatosis and to the potential development of hepatocellular adenoma and hepatocellular carcinoma in unusual clinical settings. This report describes an older man with metabolic syndrome who developed a 3.9 cm. right lobe liver mass that on directed needle biopsy showed the features of an inflammatory hepatocellular adenoma, including immunostain positivity for serum amyloid A. The case highlights the many factors involved in the pathogenesis of liver tumors in the steatotic liver of NAFLD, particularly the interplay of inflammatory mediators, adiponectin and leptin, genomics and metabolomics, lipotoxicity, endotoxin, and hepatic stellate cells.

Keywords

nonalcoholic fatty liver disease - hepatocellular adenoma - hepatocellular carcinoma - metabolic syndrome - steatosis - fatty liver - noncirrhotic hepatocellular carcinoma

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