Abstract
In order to investigate the influence of the adjacent noncancerous liver cirrhosis on the intrahepatic extensive mode of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we studied 243 surgically resected HCCs to compare the sizes and the grade of anaplasia of tumors and the incidence of intrahepatic extensive factors, i.e., capsular invasion, portal vein thrombosis, multiple nodule of cirrhotic patients with those of noncirrhotic patients. There were significantly larger number of HCCs smaller than 2.0 cm in diameter in the cirrhotic group than those in the noncirrhotic group (p<0.025). No significant difference of grade of anaplasia was found between the two groups. This result shows that HCC smaller than 2.0 cm in diameter in the cirrhotic group is likely to grow more slowly than that in noncirrhotic group, and adjacent noncancerous liver cirrhosis is likely to influence the growth of HCC arising in the cirrhotic group. As for the intrahepatic extensive factors, the incidence of capsular invasion and multiple nodules of the cirrhotic group with HCCs smaller than 2.0 cm in diameter, and the incidence of portal vein thrombosis and multiple nodules of the cirrhotic group with HCCs smaller than 5.0 cm and larger than 2.1 cm in diameter are significantly higher than those of the noncirrhotic group (p<0.05). These results suggest the possibility that HCC arising in a highly cirrhotic liver tends to grow infiltratively, invading the capsule and the portal vein, resulting in scattered intrahepatic metastases, instead of growing expansively.
