Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Dec 27, 2021; 13(12): 2192-2200
Published online Dec 27, 2021. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v13.i12.2192
Rare primary mature teratoma of the liver: A case report
Yury A Kovalenko, Yury O Zharikov, Yana V Kiseleva, Anton B Goncharov, Tatyana V Shevchenko, Beslan N Gurmikov, Dmitry V Kalinin, Alexey V Zhao
Yury A Kovalenko, Anton B Goncharov, Tatyana V Shevchenko, Beslan N Gurmikov, Alexey V Zhao, Department of Surgical Oncology and Chemotherapy, A.V. Vishnevsky National Medical Research Center of Surgery of the Russian Ministry of Healthcare, Moscow 115093, Russia
Yury O Zharikov, Department of Human Anatomy, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University), Moscow 119048, Russia
Yana V Kiseleva, International School “Medicine of the Future”, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University), Moscow 119048, Russia
Dmitry V Kalinin, Pathology Department, A.V. Vishnevsky National Medical Research Center of Surgery of the Russian Ministry of Healthcare, Moscow 115093, Russia
Author contributions: Kovalenko YA is the coordinator, project management, patient management, paper reviewer and editor, senior author; Zharikov YO contributed to the surgical brigade, intraoperative protocol preparation and proofreading; Kiseleva YV drafted the primary report, performed data collection; Goncharov AB contributed to the surgical brigade, patient management; Shevchenko TV performed data collection, surgical brigade; Gurmikov BN performed data collection, clinical assessment; Kalinin DV drafted the primary report, patient consultant, prepared the figures, and reviewed the paper; Zhao AV drafted the primary report, clinical assessment, patient management, and reviewed the paper.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patients for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016) Statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016) Statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yury O Zharikov, PhD, MBA, Associate Professor, Department of Human Anatomy, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University), 8-2 Trubetskaya Street, Moscow 119048, Russia. dr_zharikov@mail.ru
Received: June 11, 2021
Peer-review started: June 11, 2021
First decision: July 27, 2021
Revised: July 29, 2021
Accepted: October 27, 2021
Article in press: October 27, 2021
Published online: December 27, 2021
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Primary liver teratoma is an extremely rare tumor usually affecting children under the age of 3 years. Specific signs of teratoma on ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging are lacking, which makes morphology the only diagnostic tool. Misdiagnosis of a mature teratoma may lead to excessive liver resection, whereas misdiagnosis of an immature teratoma may result in spread, causing a life-threatening condition. Consequently, a careful tumor examination is important, and the rarest types of tumors must be accounted for.

CASE SUMMARY

We describe a 52 years old female who presented with a solid mass in the left liver lobe. Contrast-enhanced CT and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed a round, heterogeneous lesion containing a number of fluid areas and areas of calcification in the middle, and the provisional diagnosis was cholangiocarcinoma. The patient underwent resection of liver segment I. Immunohistochemistry analysis of the resected lesion indicated thyroid follicular epithelium; however, the thyroid gland was intact. 10 years prior to presentation the patient underwent a surgery due to mature teratoma of the right ovary, nevertheless the tumor was benign and could not spread to the liver, in addition teratoma of the liver was also benign. This led to the final diagnosis of primary mature liver teratoma.

CONCLUSION

Primary hepatic teratoma, including heterotopia of the thyroid gland in the liver, is an extremely rare condition in adults that needs to be considered in the differential diagnosis of solid-cystic neoplasms in the liver and cholangiocarcinoma. This case adds to the limited literature on the patient presentation, clinical workup and management of liver teratomas.

Keywords: Case report, Primary liver teratoma, Ectopic thyroid gland tissue, Mature teratoma, Epidermoi cyst

Core Tip: Primary liver teratoma is an extremely rare tumor. This condition in adults needs to be considered in the differential diagnosis of solid-cystic neoplasms in the liver and cholangiocarcinoma. A careful tumor examination is important, and the rarest types of tumors must be accounted for to allow the diagnosis of heterotopia of the thyroid gland in the liver.