PET-avid hepatocellular adenomas: incidental findings associated with HNF1-α mutated lesions

Hepatocellular adenoma (HCA) is the second most common benign liver neoplasm and occurs predominantly in women in their reproductive years. Positron-emission tomography (PET) using [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) is commonly used in cancer staging, surveillance and evaluation of the treatment response. PET-avid HCA is rare and can be falsely interpreted as malignancies.

A retrospective review of four institutions' database was performed to identify the PET-avid HCAs with clinico-pathological correlation.

Nine patients with histological proven PET-avid HCA was identified. Eight out of nine patients were female with a median age at diagnosis of 44 years. All patients' tumours with available histological subtyping (8/8) were HNF1-α mutated and had no inflammatory changes; six out the nine lesions had prominent (>50%) steatotic changes.

Hepatocellular adenomas, specifically the HNF1-α subtype, can cause false-positive PET findings when seeking to identify malignancy. Concomitantly, PET-CT may have the potential to identify the HCA histopathological variant with the lowest malignant and haemorrhagic potential.