Antitumor effect of hepatocyte growth factor on hepatoblastoma.

A six month-old girl presented with an abdominal mass, and high serum level of alpha-fetoprotein. She was diagnosed as having a well-differentiated hepatoblastoma by open biopsy. The biopsy specimen was transplanted on a nude mouse, and a xenograft was successfully established. Because the xenograft maintained the characteristics of the original tumor, the effect of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) on hepatoblastoma xenograft was investigated. Recently HGF was reported to be involved in growth, invasion, and metastasis of tumor cells. Contrary to our expectations, the treatment of hepatoblastoma xenograft with recombinant 20 ng/ml HGF produced a marked inhibition of cell growth and a suppression of producing alpha-fetoprotein.