Journal List > Korean J Gastroenterol > v.68(6) > 1007592

Kwon, Ryu, Jo, Kwak, Yoon, Moon, and Lee: A Case of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Presenting as a Gingival Mass

Abstract

Oral metastatic tumor, which is uncommon and represents less than 1% of malignant oral neoplasms, usually arises from a primary mucosal or cutaneous cancer located in the head and neck regions. Metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to the oral cavity, especially to gingiva, is extremely rare. A 50-year-old man, who was a chronic alcoholic and hepatitis B virus carrier, presented with abdominal distension and weight loss for the past 3 months. Three-phased contrast-enhanced abdominal CT revealed numerous conglomerated masses in the liver, suggesting huge HCCs arising in the background of liver cirrhosis with a large amount of ascites. He complained of recurrent profuse bleeding from the left upper gingival mass. A facial CT revealed an oral cavity mass destructing the left maxillary alveolar process and hard palate, which was diagnosed as metastatic HCC by an incisional biopsy. Herein, we report a case of metastatic HCC to the gingiva.

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Fig. 1.
A protruding mass suggesting metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma is noted at the left gingiva.
kjg-68-321f1.tif
Fig. 2.
(A) Arterial phase, (B) portal phase, (C) delayed phase. Numerous hepatocellular carcinomas are seen in the entire liver on abdominal CT. These masses show heterogeneous enhancement in arterial phase and typical wash-out pattern in portal and delayed phase.
kjg-68-321f2.tif
Fig. 3.
Facial CT presents malignant tumor involving the alveolar process of the left maxilla and lateral aspect of the left side hard palate (arrow).
kjg-68-321f3.tif
Fig. 4.
Photomicrograph of oral mass exhibiting severe nuclear anaplasia and pleomorphism, frequent mitotic figures, including atypical tripolar mitotic spindle (arrow) and sheet to trabecular arrangement. H&E stain, ×200.
kjg-68-321f4.tif
Fig. 5.
Cellular tumor demonstrates vascular stroma (arrows), with distinct immunohistochemical expression for CD34 (×100).
kjg-68-321f5.tif
Fig. 6.
Large anaplastic and pleomorphic tumor cells with bizarre multinucleated giant cells reveal diffuse cytoplasmic immuno-reactivity for low molecular weight cytokeratin (Cam 5.2, ×400).
kjg-68-321f6.tif
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