Prevalence study of metastases in cirrhotic livers.
OBJECTIVE
Metastatic carcinoma is rarely seen in cirrhotic livers. The aim of this study is to verify the prevalence of metastases in cirrhotic liver comparing cirrhotic patients with a control group.


METHODS
This study is based on 7,092 necropsies performed in two big Hospitals of Porto Alegre, Brazil. Two thousand seven hundred and three consecutive autopsies were analyzed to study the frequency of liver metastases in cirrhotic patients. This material included 111 cases of liver cirrhosis. A control group was obtained by matching selection to compare the prevalence of extrahepatic cancer and hepatic metastases between the two groups.


RESULTS
Our analysis showed that hepatitis metastases, as well as extrahepatic cancer, are less frequently seen in the cirrhotic liver (no cases of hepatic metastases and 6 of extrahepatic cancer) compared to the control group (10 cases of hepatic metastases and 21 of extrahepatic cancer), this difference being statistical significant (p < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results show that, in our sample, hepatic metastases are less common in cirrhosis of the liver than in liver without cirrhosis, this result may be due to the fact that patients with cirrhosis present less extrahepatic cancers and cirrhotic livers may represent an unfavorable site for metastatic growth.
Department of Gastroenterology, Federal Foundation of Medical Sciences of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Jorge Escobar
JE
Pereira-Lima
Eduardo
E
Lichtenfels
Fabiane Silva
FS
Barbosa
Cláudio Galeano
CG
Zettler
Jane Maria Uldrich
JM
Kulczynski
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000150:complications*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary*; D008875:Middle Aged