Double primary mucoepidermoid carcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma of the liver--a case report

Double primary mucoepidermoid-hepatocellular carcinoma of the liver is extremely rare, and only one case has previously been reported in the literature, although there have been about 14 cases of primary mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the liver. Most of the reported hepatic mucoepidermoid carcinoma showed a poor prognosis. We presently report the second case of a double primary mucoepidermoid carcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma with a brief review of the published literature. A 52-year-old man was admitted because of epigastric pain that lasted for 2 months. A computed tomography of the abdomen revealed a 7-cm, ill-defined mass with irregular marginal enhancement in the left lobe of liver. Another 2-cm nodular tumor was found in segment 8 of the right lobe. The two separate nodules in the patient's liver demonstrated clearly different histologic and immunohistochemical features. The pathological diagnoses were mucoepidermoid carcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma for the larger and the smaller tumors, respectively. The patient died of liver failure 6 months after a left lobectomy of the liver.