A case of juvenile hepatocellular carcinoma associated with liver cirrhosis in a family clustering of HBs antigen carriers and liver diseases.

We describe a case of hepatocellular carcinoma in a 16-year-old boy whose mother, aunts, uncles, and cousins had liver dysfunction associated with HBs-Ag. Postmortem examination in this case revealed a hepatocellular carcinoma with a trabecular and partially pseudoglandular pattern involving the whole left and most of the right lobe, associated with liver cirrhosis of the postnecrotic type. Postmortem examination of the liver revealed numerous HBs-Ag positive hepatocytes demonstrated by Orcein staining in the nontumorous cirrhotic area, but not in the tumorous hepatocytes. Vertical transmission of HBV from his mother to the patient was suspected, and autopsy findings revealed continuous infection of HBV. Hepatocellular carcinoma in a young patient, especially when associated with HBs-Ag positive liver cirrhosis, as described here is rare in the English and Japanese literature.