[Therapeutic approach and associated problems of advanced liver tumors in children based on nuclear DNA ploidy...

We evaluated the therapeutic approach and its associated problems in 14 hepatoblastomas (HB) and 3 hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) based on the ploidy patterns determined from paraffin-embedded tissues by flow cytometry. Aneuploid pattern was seen more frequently in the patients with poorly differentiated and immature types of HB, and HCC. It was also observed in patients with tumors showing microscopic vessel invasion, and in patients showing resistance to the therapeutic approach. Among 4 patients with combined epithelial components of HB, 2 patients' tumors revealed both the aneuploid and diploid patterns and their prognoses were poor. The prognoses of patients with tumors showing the aneuploid pattern were significantly poorer. From our study we concluded that careful attention should be pain to the heterogeneity of these tumors and that more aggressive treatment for tumors showing aneuploid pattern should be developed.