The Great Pretender: Echinococcal Infections Posing as Liver Cancer - Two Case Reports

Medical professionals are well aware that imaging techniques are not infallible in accurately diagnosing cancer or staging patients with histologically confirmed cancer. Pathologists often emerge as game changers, prompting a complete re-evaluation of the therapeutic approach.

Here we present 2 cases of patients initially diagnosed with suspicious cancer lesions that were subsequently identified as echinococcal hydatids. Beyond the clinical findings, the patients' perspectives vividly illustrate the psychological burden of misdiagnosis and the impact of treatment side effects. From an epidemiological standpoint, alveolar echinococcosis remains rare, but its incidence is steadily increasing in Central Europe, with Switzerland being a region of particularly high prevalence.

These case reports emphasize the reality that not all liver masses indicate malignancy and underscore the importance of histological diagnosis before cancer treatment.