Precancerous condition of the human liver.

Abstract

The mean radius R of the hepatic lobules was defined as the radius of a hypothetical cylinder made by re-arranging the total volume of the hepatic paren-chyma around an axis of the length of the total hepatic veins in the liver. In normal livers R was about 250μ in newborns and attained 350-400μ in adults. In the livers with primary liver cancer without liver cirrhosis, R was distinctly higher and exceeded 500μ in extreme cases. The result was interpreted as indicating precancerous growth of the liver parenchyma. In cases of metastatic liver cancer, such a tendency was not observed. Supposing that the total liver cell volume was extended in a uniform thick-ness between two equal plates, each of which had a surface area equal to half the surface area of the total sinusoidal boundaries, the mean thickness _??_ of the liver cell plates was estimated. Its values in the part of the liver not involved in cancer were evidently increased in cases of primary liver cancer without cirrhosis, and represented a process underlying enlarged lobular radius in such livers. The same tendency was confirmed in cirrhotic livers with and without liver cancer. The distinct increase in _??_ indicated an excessive growth of liver cells different from simple regenerative proliferation. The behavior of liver cells was regarded as an expression of precancerous growth common to cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic livers.