Well-differentiated Hepatocellular Carcinoma Showing Intrahepatic Neural Invastion: Autopsied Case Kazuhiko Ueda 1 , Yasuni Nakanuma 1 *, Tadashi Terada1, Takeo Naito2 and Osamu Matsui 3 'Second Department of Pathology, 2First Department of Internal Medicine and department of Radiology, Kanazawa University School of Medicine, 13-1 Takaramachi, Kanazawa 920 An autopsied case of well-differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma ( H C O , showing neural invasion into the portal tract of the liver, a hitherto undescribed lesion, is reported. The patient, a 68-year-old man, had had treatment for HCC over nine years, comprising surgical resection, transcatheter arterial embolization, transportal venous embolization and percutaneous ethanol injection to nodules of the HCC. At autopsy, many HCC nodules ( < 7 c m in diameter) were found in the liver. In one of them, carcinoma cells infiltrated the medium-sized protal tract among the regenerative nodules and some of these carcinoma cells further invaded nerve fibers. Although the majority of the HCC nodules showed ischemic necrosis, the infiltrating carcinoma cells in the portal tract were viable, suggesting the biological behavior and/or blood supply of these infiltrating carcinoma cells to be different.

(Jpn. J. Clin. Oncol. 21: 143—146, 1991) Key words:

Hepatocellular carcinoma—Neural invasion—Stromal invasion

Introduction Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) showed variable types of intrahepatic growth and spread.lJ