Up until recently, almost all pediatric liver cancers were classified as either hepatoblastoma or hepatocellular carcinoma. However, pediatric pathologists have noted that certain liver tumors have histological characteristics that do not readily match either of these two carcinoma models. The outcomes for patients with these tumors are poor and the tumors are less likely to respond to chemotherapy.
Dr. Pavel Sumazin, an associate professor of pediatrics at Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center and Baylor College of Medicine, sought to better understand this high-risk cancer.
