Background: Paraneoplastic cutaneous manifestations associated with hepatocellular carcinoma may allow early diagnosis and curative treatment. Chronic prurigo alone may reveal hepatocellular carcinoma hepatocellular carcinoma in the absence of any other abnormal laboratory results potentially indicative of hepatic disease.
Case report: A 79-year-old woman was referred to our unit for prurigo beginning 3 months earlier, occurring night and day and causing insomnia. The initial results were completely normal. In the absence of improvement under treatment with dermal corticosteroids, additional investigations were performed, in particular, abdominal ultrasound. The latter showed a liver nodule of 1.5 cm in diameter. CT scan confirmed the presence of this nodule and revealed morphological changes consistent with hepatocellular carcinoma in segment VIII. Alpha-fetoprotein was elevated. Following surgical treatment of this hepatocellular carcinoma, skin lesions regressed without any further treatment. One year later, no relapse of skin lesions was observed and the patient was in complete remission regarding hepatocellular carcinoma.
Discussion: Prurigo may constitute a paraneoplastic sign of hepatocarcinoma, the prognosis of which depends upon the stage at which it is discovered. For small tumors (< 3 cm), surgery may be curative. Of the few cases reported in the literature, our patient is the first to undergo curative surgery thanks to early diagnosis.