Hypercholesterolaemia in primary cancer of the liver
Goldberg, R.B.; Bersohn, I.; Kew, M.C.
South African Medical Journal 49(36): 1464-1466
1975
ISSN/ISBN: 0256-9574 PMID: 169598 Document Number: 86381
Hepatic synthesis of cholesterol in higher animals is normally markedly suppressed by dietary cholesterol. This feedback regulation has been shown to be absent in all experimental hepatomas studied, and also in the only 2 humans with primary hepatocellular cancer (PHC) who have been investigated. Another patient who presented with hypercholesterolaemia is described in whom cholesterogenesis in the tumour was not suppressed by cholesterol feeding. In order to determine the frequency with which hypercholesterolaemia occurs in PHC, serum cholesterol levels were measured in 132 Black patients with this tumour. Raised levels were found in 14 of the patients (11%). In only 2 of these was hypercholesterolaemia associated with obstructive jaundice.