Anabolic steroid therapy and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

Cancer. 1979 Feb;43(2):440-3.

Anabolic steroid therapy and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

Stromeyer FW, Smith DH, Ishak KG.

A 47-year-old man who had been treated with an anabolic steroid for refractory
anemia developed an intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma with metastases to abdominal
lymph nodes and lungs. Microscopically, the tumor showed mucin production and was
devoid of hepatocellular elements. Previous reports have suggested a possible
relationship between anabolic steroid therapy and hepatocellular carcinoma. In
many such cases, there are doubts about the histological diagnosis, malignant
potential, and the nature of the association between the steroids and the tumors.
The presence of distant metastases attests to the malignant nature of the tumor
in the present case. Despite the apparent temporal eligibility of the steroid as
an etiologic agent, a causative relationship between therapy and tumor is not
established.