Liver carcinogenesis: diagnostic and clinical aspects of preneoplastic nodules

Fabio Paladino,Giampiero Francica,Mauro Borzio

doi:10.20517/2394-5079.2019.11

Abstract

Hepatoma Research is an open access journal and focuses on all topics related to hepatoma. The following articles are especially welcome: pathogenesis, clinical examination and early diagnosis of hepatoma, complications of hepatoma, and their preventions and treatments, etc.

Highlights

It has long been known that, like in others human carginogenetic models as colo-rectal cancer, in hepatocellular multistep carcinogenesis precancerous lesions both micro- and macroscopic precede the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)[1,2]
These lesions have been described many years ago and include microscopic dysplastic foci (DF) and sizable dysplastic nodules (DN). The latter are further categorized as low-grade (LG-DN) and high-grade dysplastic nodules (HG-DN) with specific and distinctive morphologic characteristics and different carcinogenetic propensity[3]
Renzulli et al.[56] reported data from a prospective study evaluating the imaging criteria of HCC, early HCC and high grade (HG)-DNs using gadoxetic acid-enhanced liver magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 228 patients prospectively enrolled with 480 small nodules detected under surveillance for cirrhosis

Summary

Introduction

It has long been known that, like in others human carginogenetic models as colo-rectal cancer, in hepatocellular multistep carcinogenesis precancerous lesions both micro- and macroscopic precede the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)[1,2]. This nodular arterialization becomes progressively more evident by transition from regenerative to dysplastic and neoplastic nodules reaching the full expression in high-differentiated HCCs. Dynamic CT, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ContrastEnhanced Ultrasound (CEUS) are the contrast-enhanced imaging to investigate the vascular pattern of nodules detected under surveillance in cirrhosis.

Results

Conclusion