Small hepatocellular carcinoma containing many Mallory bodies.

Four cases of small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), consisting exclusively of Mallory body (MB)-containing cells, were presented. The MB-containing HCC cells seemed actively proliferating and infiltrated into the surrounding non-neoplastic tissue with a concomitant loss of the hepatic parenchyma, alpha-fetoprotein was immunohistochemically demonstrated in these MB-containing HCC cells. Therefore, the possibility arises that the process by which MBs are formed is a fundamental pathway that on some occasions may be linked with neoplastic transformation.