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Small hepatocellular carcinoma: Its relationship to multistep hepatocarcinogenesis
Author(s) -
Uchida Toshikazu
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
pathology international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.73
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1440-1827
pISSN - 1320-5463
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1827.1995.tb03440.x
Subject(s) - hepatocellular carcinoma , pathology , medicine , hyperplasia , phenotype , cancer research , liver regeneration , carcinoma , oncology , biology , regeneration (biology) , gene , biochemistry , microbiology and biotechnology
Recent advances In imagfng techniques have led to the discovery of small hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC). The small HCC most often exhibit low‐grade malignant (LGM) or extremely well differentiated features, which are different from those of advanced, full‐blown HCC. The LGM‐HCC present a serious diagnostic challenge to pathologists and must be differentiated from benign (reactive) and atypical (borderline) hyperplastic nodules. Analysis of small HCC revealed that hepatocarcinogenesis frequently occurs step‐wise from atypical hyperplasia to LGM‐HCC and subsequently to advanced HCC. The HCC arise in irregular regeneration in chronic liver disease and in the essentially normal liver after steroid administration. Although the tumor suppressor gene, p53, is revealed to be often mutated in advanced HCC, the genetic events corresponding to each stage of multistep hepatocarcinogenesis are not clarified at all.