Hepatocellular carcinoma

Objective: To establish the most common pathological criteria to diagnose h epatocellular carcinoma, and to identify the high-risk patients for further investigation in order to detect hepatocellular carcinoma in its early sta ges. Methods: A retrospective study was carried out at King Khalid National Guar d Hospital including 60 cases diagnosed as hepatocellular carcinoma cytolog ically and histopathologic ally. Further investigations were performed by s pecial staining and immunohistochemical staining on 42 blocks including Per iodic acid-schiff, PAS-D, Reticulin, Iron and Alpha Fetoprotein, hepatitis B surface antigen, hepatitis B core antigen and p53 antibodies. Results: It was found that presence of prominent pseudoinclusion were the p leomorphism, followed by nucleoli and nuclear most frequent finding in hepa tocellular carcinoma. While considering other studies, reticulin framework, glycogen and iron content of the hepatocellular carcinoma were markedly di minished as compared to non-malignant liver tissue. Antibodies against tumo r suppressor gene was applied on paraffin section (p53), it was positive in 52% of cases and 53% of them were having anti hepatitis B surface antigen positivity, detected in their serum and 23% were having hepatitis C antibod ies positive. Conclusion: Hepatocellular carcinoma is malignancy that can be detected by certain defined pathological parameters and should be suspected in highrisk patient.