Massive cerebral hemorrhage from metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma

Metastasis of hepatoma to the brain is a rare event. Even rarer is massive hemorrhage of the brain associated with metastatic hepatoma. A 57-year-old man had cirrhosis of the liver with hepatocellular carcinoma. The tumor spread to the lungs and left occipital lobe of the brain. The primary and secondary neoplasms were negative in detection of mucin, but were immunohistochemically positive to cytokeratin CAM 5.2 and KC; the finding supported the hepatocellular origin of the tumor. The metastatic tumor formed papillae in the lung and produced massive hemorrhage in the left occipital lobe. This case raised the total number of intracranial metastatic hepatic carcinomas to 34 cases. Five of 34 hepatic carcinomas metastatic to brain, including the current one, were hepatocellular carcinoma that produced massive hemorrhage.