Clear cell carcinoma of liver. An ultrastructural study.

A light microscopic and ultrastructural study of ten consecutive cases each of the clear cell type and nonclear cell type of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) showed important differences between the two groups which may help to explain their different biological behavior. The clear cells contained substantial quantities of glycogen and lipid which partly substitute the usual cytoplasmic constituents. An analogy was made between these tumor cells with clear cytoplasm and the clear cells which occurred in the intermediary stages of hepatocellular carcinogenesis in animals in an attempt to explain the better outcome of clear cell HCC.