Pathology of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Recent studies by Japanese workers

Recent studies by Japanese workers on the classification of liver cirrhosis, relationship between liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, and pathology of hepatocellular carcinoma were reviewed. It was found that many systems of classification of liver cirrhosis were in current use in different parts of the world and it was recommended to use the classification of types A, B, and C in this country. An interesting fact was that there was a difference in the frequency of hepatocellular carcinoma-association in liver cirrhosis but not in cirrhosis-association in hepatocellular carcinoma between Japan and western countries. Although there were some attempts to classify hepatocellular carcinoma grossly and histologically, we do not still have any universally accepted classification. On the other hand, introduction of enzyme- and immuno-histochemistry, electron microscopy and nonimmunogenic staining of Hepatitis B antigen seemed to be useful for the study on liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.