[Liver pathology associated with anabolic androgenic steroids]

This review regards the liver damaging side-effects of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS). It seems that AAS can cause development of peliosis hepatis, subcellular changes of hepatocytes, hepatocellular hyperplasia and hepatocellular adenomas. On the other hand, it has not been convincingly proved that AAS can cause development of hepatocellular carcinomas when used in usual therapeutical doses. Tumours reported as hepatocellular carcinomas caused by AAS seem to be hyperplastic lesions of a benign nature that are able to regress on withdrawal of the putative agent. The effect of untraditional combinations of AAS and high-dose AAS is not yet known, leaving the possibility of a carcinogenic effect in those cases.