Identification of genetic alterations in pediatric hepatocellular carcinomas

Paediatric hepatocellular carcinomas (pHCC) are rare neoplasms. Due to a worse prognosis of pHCC and different treatment approaches in comparison to the hepatoblastoma (HBL), an exact differentiation is required. Building on a previously published study by Weber et al., (AJP, 2000) which looked at HBL genomic alterations, we aim to compare the two cohorts and to identify characteristic chromo-somal alterations of pHCC. Genomic DNA was extracted from 34 pHCC, including 4 cases of the fibrolamellar subtype and 3 cases with partial fibrolamellar differentiation. By using molecular inversion profiling a Genome-wide…