[Hepatocellular carcinoma complicated by non-islet cell tumor hypoglycemia]

A 36-year-old woman presented with right upper quadrant abdominal pain, weight loss and attacks of severe sweating. She was known to have a chronic hepatitis B infection. A large hepatocellular carcinoma was diagnosed complicated by recurrent episodes of hypoglycaemia. Serum insulin, insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I) and growth hormone levels proved to be low, with increased serum levels of big-IGF-II. This is indicative of non-islet cell tumour hypoglycaemia. The patient received prednisone which resulted in an improvement in the blood glucose values but the morning hypoglycaemia remained, so that nightly intravenous glucose administration continued to be necessary. Therefore, growth hormone was added to the treatment which resulted in a complete disappearance of the hypoglycaemias. The patient died within 6 months of the diagnosis having been established.