Three cases of adrenocortical tumors mistaken for hepatocellular carcinomas/diagnostic pitfalls and differential diagnosis

•Adrenal tumors arising in ectopic adrenal tissue or adrenohepatic fusion leading to diagnostic confusion.•Our cases diagnosed as hepatocellular carcinomas in preoperative status.•One of our cases exhibited positive staining for glypican.

Adrenocortical adenomas and carcinomas in other parenchyma are extremely rare, with few cases reported and because of the rarity of these tumors, they occasionally cause problems during diagnosis. Adrenal cortical neoplasms in liver parenchyma can be present in 3 forms, including direct invasion or adhesion to liver parenchyma, tumors arising in adrenohepatic fusion tissue or in ectopic adrenal gland tissue. We report 3 cases of adrenal cortical tumors that were misdiagnosed as hepatocellular carcinoma in the preoperative state. The first case involved an adrenocortical adenoma arising in adrenohepatic fusion tissue. The remaining 2 cases involved an adrenocortical carcinoma and an adrenocortical oncocytoma arising in ectopic adrenal tissue in the liver. We describe the clinical presentations, gross, microscopic findings, immunohistochemical findings with respect to each case, with emphasis on differential diagnosis from hepatocellular carcinoma.