Hepatocellular carcinoma in a patient with precirrhotic primary biliary cirrhosis.

Hepatocellular carcinoma is generally associated with long-standing chronic liver disease of diverse etiology, most commonly HBsAg-positive chronic active hepatitis, hemochromatosis, or alcoholic liver disease. Patients with primary biliary cirrhosis have only rarely developed a subsequent hepatocellular carcinoma. We report such a patient, a 77-year-old woman with an early, precirrhotic stage of primary biliary cirrhosis who developed a hepatoma.