[Prognosis and preoperative imaging of patients with small hepatocellular carcinoma]

We conducted a retrospective study on the relation of the preoperative imaging patterns to the prognosis of patients with small HCC after hepatectomy. Forty patients with small HCC less than 2 cm in diameter without vascular invasion were enrolled in this study. There were no significant differences in the signal intensity of T1WI on MRI, and angiographic findings such as neo-vascularity or tumor stain. Ultrasonographical images of the internal of tumor were classified into two groups. Six cases with homogeneous pattern were significantly worse in cumulative survival rate than 28 cases with heterogeneous pattern (p = 0.0012). The same results were obtained with respect to limitation of cases treated by relative curative operation (p = 0.0041). It was concluded that histopathological grading and malignant potential of small HCC could be evaluated by classification of the pattern of internal ultrasonographical images, and complete locoregional therapy, and that intense course observation for cases with ultrasonographical homogeneous pattern would be important.