Abstract
Of 173 autopsy and operation cases of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) for the past 6 years from 1972 to 1977 at Kurume University Hospital, 25 cases of HCC without cirrhosis were seen and clinicopathological studies were carried out. Among HCCs with or without liver cirrhosis, there were many differences of age, sex, clinical course, cause of death, metastasis, frequency of intrahepatic tumor thrombus and serum HBsAg.
Serum HBsAg was positive in only 2 of the 21 cases (9.5%) of HCC without cirrhosis. On the other hand, it was positive in 45 of the 104 cases (43.3%) of HCC with cirrhosis.
In general, differentiation of the HCC tissue tended to parallel to the degree of fibrosis in non-cancerous area. In the cases with slight fibrosis, HCC showed poor differentiation. On the other hand, in the cases with dense fibrosis, HCC showed well differentiation.
