Hepatocellular carcinoma with neuroendocrine differentiation: a case report

Hepatocellular carcinoma with neuroendocrine differentiation, where tumor cells stain for both hepatocellular and neuroendocrine markers, is extremely rare. We report a case of a 65-year-old man who presented with a 14-cm rapidly growing mass in the right lobe of his liver with local extension into the gallbladder and portal vein. Serum AFP was 4625 ng/mL. Liver biopsy showed a poorly differentiated neoplasm with cells showing nuclear pleomorphism, high nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio, and numerous mitoses. The tumor cells stain for AFP, glutamine synthase, arginase, and glypican-3. The same tumor regions also stain positively for synaptophysin, chromogranin, and CD56. Given this histological pattern, this tumor was ultimately diagnosed as hepatocellular carcinoma with neuroendocrine differentiation.