Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Case report
Primary hepatic neuroendocrine tumour masquerading as a giant haemangioma: an unusual presentation of a rare disease
  1. Talal Almas1,
  2. Faisal Inayat2,
  3. Maryam Ehtesham1 and
  4. Muhammad Kashif Khan3
  1. 1Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
  2. 2Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan
  3. 3Federal Government Polyclinic Hospital, Islamabad, Pakistan
  1. Correspondence to Dr Faisal Inayat; faisalinayat{at}hotmail.com

Abstract

Primary hepatic neuroendocrine tumour is an exceedingly rare entity. We hereby delineate the case of a 45-year-old Balti descent woman who hails from a land-locked village situated in the foothills of the Pakistani Himalayas. The patient presented to our medical centre with a hepatic mass. She underwent extensive diagnostic workup. The consistent findings of an abdominal CT scan, coupled with her clinical history, insinuated a preoperative diagnosis of atypical hepatic haemangioma. After a detailed discussion in a multidisciplinary meeting, a standard right hemihepatectomy was performed. She had an uneventful postoperative recovery and was discharged in stable condition after 1 week. Surprisingly, pathological examination and immunohistochemistry of the resected specimen divulged the diagnosis of a grade II primary hepatic neuroendocrine tumour. Her somatostatin-receptor scintigraphy and Gallium-68 DOTATATE positron emission tomography scan excluded residual hepatic or additional body lesions. Regular follow-ups over the past 4 years demonstrated unremarkable radiological findings with no recurrence to date.

  • hepatic cancer
  • hemangioma
  • carcinogenesis
  • surgical oncology

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Footnotes

  • Contributors TA: performed the literature review, drafted the manuscript, formulated the data table and reviewed the manuscript. FI: designed the study, performed the literature review, drafted the manuscript and revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content. ME: contributed to the case presentation and discussion. MKK: reviewed the manuscript and suggested pertinent modifications. All authors reviewed the final version and gave approval for the final publication.

  • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Patient consent for publication Obtained.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.