臨床病理学ジャーナル

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The Expression of Stem Cell Markers in Typical Hepatocellular Carcinoma and its Fibrolamellar

Szparecki G, Ilczuk T, Górnicka B and Sirak J

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of death resulting from neoplasms worldwide. Its risk factors include liver cirrhosis and viral infections (chiefly hepatitis B and C virus). Recently novel factors associated with poor prognosis has been identified, which are deemed to result from the presence of cancer stem cells (CSCs) - the identification of EpCAM(+), CK19(+) and NCAM(+) cells within the tumour makes the prognosis worse. Fibrolamellar type of HCC (FL) is characterised by longer survival and independence from risk factors typical of HCC. In the present study we investigate differences between classical hepatocellular carcinoma and fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma in terms of stem cell markers expression: EpCAM, CK19, cKIT and NCAM. In samples of FL HCC and other variants of the tumour the immunohistochemical analysis was performed. The immunoreactivity of FL HCC cells was significantly lower as far as a percentage of positive stained cells and a fraction of cases, where at least 5% of cells was positive is concerned when compared with typical HCC. The results indicate that one of the factors influencing better outcome in patients with FL, as opposed to typical HCC, might be the less numerous population of CSCs, as identified by their EpCAM(+) immunostaining.