Prognostic value of periodic Acid-schiff (pas) staining of fine-needle aspirates from patients with primary hepatocellular-carcinoma.

The relationships of cytological findings on periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) staining of fine-needle aspirates of hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) with the length of survival of patients, their therapeutic response after transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE), and the tumor volume doubling time (TVDT) before chemoembolization were investigated in 74 patients with primary HCC. On the basis of cytologic findings on PAS-staining, HCC was classified into PAS-positive, mixed, and PAS-negative types. The two-year survival (70%) of patients with PAS-positive HCC was significantly longer than those of patients with the mixed or PAS-negative type of HCC. The TVDT of PAS-positive HCC was also significantly longer than that of the mixed type of HCC. These findings indicate that cytological findings on PAS-staining of HCC are useful in assessing the prognosis of patients with HCC.