Outcomes of Children with Well-Differentiated Fetal Hepatoblastoma Treated with Surgery Only: Report from Children's Oncology Group Trial, AHEP0731

Hepatoblastoma (HB) is the most common pediatric liver malignancy and surgical resection remains the foundation of curative therapy [1,2]. Reports have shown that among children with tumors amenable to resection at diagnosis, also referred to as upfront resection, those with 100% pure fetal histology (PFH) have better outcomes than patients with other tumor histologies [3,4]. The Children's Oncology Group (COG) evaluated this concept in two consecutive clinical trials [5,6]. Intergroup HB study INT-0098 treated 9 patients with PFH tumors resected at diagnosis with adjuvant doxorubicin as single-agent therapy [5] while study P9645 (NCT00003994) was the first study that completely omitted chemotherapy following surgery in 16 patients with PFH tumors [6].