Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas. Electronic address: William.lee@UTSouthwestern.edu.
Authors
Fix O, Fontana RJ, Han SH, Hughes RS, Lee WM, Naugler WE, Rich NE, Sanders C, Stravitz RT, Zaman A
Rich NE, Sanders C, Hughes RS, Fontana RJ, Stravitz RT, Fix O, Han SH, Naugler WE, Zaman A, Lee WM. Malignant infiltration of the liver presenting as acute liver failure. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2015 May;13(5):1025-8. Epub 2014 Sep 30.
Abstract
There have been few reports of acute liver failure (ALF), with encephalopathy and coagulopathy, caused by infiltration of the liver by malignant cells. We describe a case series of 27 patients with ALF caused by malignancy. We examined a large, multicenter ALF registry (1910 patients; mean age, 47.1 ± 13.9 y) and found only 27 cases (1.4%) of ALF attributed to malignancy. Twenty cases (74%) presented with abdominal pain and 11 presented with ascites. The most common malignancies included lymphoma or leukemia (33%), breast cancer, (30%), and colon cancer (7%); 90% of the patients with lymphoma or leukemia had no history of cancer, compared with 25% of patients with breast cancer. Overall, 44% of the patients had evidence of liver masses on imaging. Diagnosis was confirmed by biopsy in 15 cases (55%) and by autopsy for 6 cases. Twenty-four patients (89%) died within 3 weeks of ALF.