Spanish 
Chinese 
Russian 
German 
French 
Japanese 
Portuguese 
Hindi Research Article
Phenotypic Categorization and Profiles of Small and Large Hepatocellular Carcinomas
| Petr Pancoska1, Sheng-Nan Lu2 and Brian I Carr3* | |
| 1Center for Craniofacial and Dental Genetics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA | |
| 2Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical Center, Chang Gung University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan | |
| 3Department of Liver Tumor Biology IRCCS de Bellis, National Institute for Digestive Diseases, Castellana Grotte , BA, Italy | |
| Corresponding Author : | Brian I Carr Department of Liver Tumor Biology IRCCS de Bellis National Institute for Digestive Diseases Castellana Grotte (BA), Italy Email: brianicarr@hotmail.com |
| Received January 18, 2013; Accepted February 27, 2013; Published March 02, 2013 | |
| Citation: Pancoska P, Lu SN, Carr BI (2013) Phenotypic Categorization and Profiles of Small and Large Hepatocellular Carcinomas. J Gastroint Dig Syst S12:001. doi: 10.4172/2161-069X.S12-001 | |
| Copyright: © 2013 Pancoska P, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
Abstract
We used a database of 4139 Taiwanese HCC patients to take a new approach (Network Phenotyping Strategy) to HCC subset identification. Individual parameters for liver function tests, complete blood count, portal vein thrombosis, AFP levels and clinical demographics of age, gender, hepatitis or alcohol consumption, were considered within the whole context of complete relationships, being networked with all other parameter levels in the entire cohort. We identified 4 multi-parameter patterns for one tumor phenotype of patients and a separate 5 multi-parameter patterns to characterize another tumor phenotype of patterns. The 2 subgroups were quite different in their clinical profiles. The means of the tumor mass distributions in these phenotype subgroups were significantly different, one being associated with larger (L) and the other with smaller (S) tumor masses. These significant differences were seen systematically throughout the tumor mass distributions. Essential and common clinical components of L-phenotype patterns included simultaneously high blood levels of AFP and platelets plus presence of portal vein thrombosis. S included higher levels of liver inflammatory parameters. The 2 different parameter patterns of L and S subgroups suggest different mechanisms; L, possibly involving tumor-driven processes and S more associated with liver inflammatory processes.
