Comparative Genomic Hybridization: Synchronous Occurrence of Focal Nodular Hyperplasia and Hepatocellular Carcinoma in the Same Liver Is Not Based on Common Chromosomal Aberrations

Abstract

Occasionally hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) occur synchronously with or within focal nodular hyperplasias (FNHs), raising the question of a putative causal relationship. In the present study, we used comparative genomic hybridization to investigate the occurrence of genomic aberrations in FNHs, which might lead to hepatocarcinogenesis. Tissue samples from FNHs and nonlesional liver tissue were obtained from 7 women. None of the patients had a chronic diffuse liver disease. A synchronous HCC not spatially related to FNH was present in 1 patient. Two patients had received oral contraceptives. Genomic aberrations were found in only 1 FNH. No aberration was found in the FNH occurring synchronously with HCC, but the HCC included gains at chromosomes 1q, 5, 12, and 19q and losses at 4p, 7q22–q35, 9p, 17p, 21q, and 22q. No aberrations were found in nonneoplastic liver tissues. Our findings support the notion that FNH is not a preneoplastic lesion for the occurrence of HCC in humans and that the synchronous occurrence of FNH and HCC is coincidental in our case.