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The histologic appearance of
hepatocellular carcinoma is also extremely variegated. Many
different histologic patterns may be seen, but most are only
important to surgical pathologists. With the exception of one
histologic type, the "fibrolamellar" variant (which you do
not need to know about now), the different histologic patterns have
no clinical, biologic, or epidemiological significance. This
particular carcinoma is growing in a predominantly trabecular
pattern. The tumor cells are growing in nests and thick cords that
are separated form one another by thin walled sinusoids.
Cytologically the tumor cells bear some resemblance to normal
hepatocytes but they are slightly larger, have more irregular
nuclei, and prominent nuclei. There are also numerous mitotic
figures. You may also notice that many of the tumor cells contain
intracytoplasmic violaceous, hyaline globules (arrow) that represent
proteins produced by the tumor cells. Occasionally, these hyaline
globules represent collection of alpha-fetoprotein or
alpha-1-antitrypsin. |
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