Clinical and pathological comparison of young adult women with hepatocellular carcinoma with and without exposure to oral contraceptives.

We compared the clinical characteristics and histological classifications of young adult women with hepatocellular carcinoma with and without exposure to increased amounts of sex steroids in order to investigate the possibility that sex steroids changed the behavior of the tumor. Fifteen women were found to have a history of exposure to increased levels of sex steroids while 14 did not. One of the women in the exposed group had elements of adenoma next to her carcinoma, allowing speculation as to whether the malignancy arose from a previous adenoma. Statistically significant differences between the two groups were that the exposed group had a higher number of gravida (2.2 compared to 0.9, p = 0.013) and suffered tumor rupture with hemoperitoneum more frequently (4/15 compared to 0/4, p = 0.037). Trends worth noting were that the exposed group tended to survive longer, complain of pain and weight loss less frequently, and have lower alpha-fetoprotein levels. These findings indicate that exposure to sex steroids may change the clinical behavior of hepatocellular carcinoma, producing among other things a hypervascularity and tendency for hemoperitoneum.