Histopathological and Immunohistochemical Studies on the Liver of Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infected Patients and Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Sharkia Governorate, Egypt

In the present study, seventy five cases which has been previously proved to have HCV by PCR and preserved in the Early Cancer Detection Unit (ECDU) archive belonging to the Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt were submitted for this work. Routine Hematoxylin and Eosin (H\&E) stain for histopathological and cytopathological studies, histochemical (Collagen and Reticulin) stains, immunohistochemical stains (AFP \& CEA) were applied to predict and evaluate the role of HCV in liver cirrhosis and development to HCC. Normal architecture was still preserved in most of the chronic hepatitis cases while it was partially lost in few cases. Hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) and all of the cirrhotic cases completely lost their normal architecture. Liver fibrosis was absent in some of chronic HCV cases and it was observed in severely infected cases. On the other hand, the malignant criteria of HCC appeared in three types, well differentiated HCC, moderately differentiated HCC and poorly differentiated HCC. Immunohistochemical investigations played a good role in evaluating malignant changes of the studied cases, particularly AFP, although absence of AFP sometimes does not exclude the diagnosis of HCC, meaning, that HCC may not produce AFP. We noticed also that, CEA staining is somewhat similar to AFP in that, there was a high significant correlation between the different histopathological changes and the intensity of reaction, while no correlation could be proved between the tumor grades of HCC and the intensity of CEA staining. {[}Samia, M. Sanad, Amal, M. Mangoud(2), Amr A. Shalaby and Mahmoud S. Abd El-Wahed Histopathological and Immunohistochemical Studies on the Liver of Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infected Patients and Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Sharkia Governorate, Egypt. Life Science Journal 2011;8(4):1008-1025]. (ISSN: 1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 128