Clinicopathologic features of early hepatocellular carcinoma

This study attempts to clarify the clinicopathologic definition of early hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs).

We evaluated 57 patients, with HCCs less than 3 cm in diameter, in terms of prognosis, incidence of extrahepatic metastasis, and tumor recurrence rate following treatment.

Survival was related to both tumor number and histologic differentiation, but was not related to tumor size. Furthermore, prognosis appeared to depend on the functional reserve of the liver. The incidence of extrahepatic metastasis was related to histologic differentiation. There was no significant difference in the recurrence rates of patients with uninodular tumors in terms of tumor size.

Our findings indicate that early HCCs measure 15 mm or less in diameter, are uninodular, and are histologically well-differentiated. Finally, the functional reserve of the liver will likely be an additional parameter that will further characterize early HCCs.