Hepatoblastoma is an uncommon malignant liver cancer occurring in infants and children and composed of tissue resembling fetal liver cells, mature liver cells, or bile duct cells. They usually present with an abdominal mass. The disease is most commonly diagnosed during a child's first three years of life. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels are commonly elevated, but when AFP is not elevated at diagnosis the prognosis is poor. Recently on other components of the Wnt signaling pathway have also demonstrated a likely role for constitutive activation of this pathway in the etiology of hepatoblastoma.Accumulating evidence suggests that hepatoblastoma is derived from a pluripotent stem cell.
