Clinical features of 29 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most frequent primary tumor of the liver. It is associated to chronic liver diseases and has a high preval ence in some regions of Africa and Asia. Aim: To describe the clinical char acteristics of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, admitted to two hosp itals of the IX region of southern Chile. Material and methods: Prospective study of 29 consecutive patients admitted to two hospitals in Temuco, Chil e. Clinical features, laboratory values and viral markers were analyzed. Re sults: Eighteen patients were male and ages ranged from 29 to 75 years old. The most frequent presenting symptom was abdominal pain in 21 patients. Se ven subjects had a history of alcoholism. Serum bilirubin values ranged fro m 0.1 to 15.8 mg/dl, alkaline phosphatases ranged from 171 to 3476 U/l, ASA T from 24 to 5400 U/l and alpha feto protein from 1.4 to 350 ng/ml. Two pat ients had a positive hepatitis B surface antigen and all had negative hepat itis C virus antibodies. Mean tumoral diameter was 9.6 cm and the most comm on presentation was nodular. Mean survival after be diagnosis was 6.3 month s. Conclusions: These patients with hepatocellular carcinoma have a low fre quency of positive viral markers and tumors of large sizes on presentation.