[Primary malignant liver tumors in children]

The review is based on the analysis of 17 national and 58 foreign publications dealing with the epidemiology, classification, age features, morphology, ultrastructure, histogenesis, complications and outcomes of primary malignant tumors of the liver in children. This analysis showed primary tumors of the liver in children to occupy the third place among neoplasia of the abdominal cavity and retroperitoneal space. There are no universally accepted terms for their designation and this prevents the development of a unique classification. Under 3 years, tumors develop predominantly from the embryonal tissue: hepatoblastomas of epithelial and mixed types frequently combined with congenital disorders and malformations of other organs. At more advanced age, hepatic carcinoma, a tumor of the adult type, is found. The review deals with the problems of histogenesis and classification of primary hepatic tumors in children. An opinion is given on the entodermo-mesodermal nature of embryonal hepatic tumors from the pluripotential blastema capable of malignization both into entodermal and mesodermal components. The prognosis of the disease is poor, 90% of children with hepatoblastoma and 80% with hepatocarcinoma die within one year after the diagnosis is established.,