Hepatoid adenocarcinoma of colon : a case report and literature review

Hepatoid adenocarcinoma is a peculiar but aggressive type of extrahepatic adenocarcinoma that morphologically resembles hepatocellular carcinoma. To date, only a handful of cases have been described in the colon. Here, such a case is reported and pertinent literature is reviewed. Characteristic features of the tumor include large polygonal cells with marked nuclear atypia, prominent nucleoli and eosinophilic granular or clear cytoplasm arranged in trabeculae and solid nests or sheets. The tumor was immunohistochemically positive for AFP, CDX-2 and hepatocyte paraffin 1.