Purpose: To establish a new scoring system for limbal dermoid, in order to unify the diagnostic criteria and assess the prognosis. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on 261 patients with limbal dermoid. The basic information, clinical features, and pathology of dermoids were recorded, and the prognosis at 1 year after keratoplasty was assessed at follow-up. A new visual scoring system was created for the area of corneal involvement, the area of conjunctival involvement, and the surface shape. Results: There were 154 females and 107 males with mean age of 4 6 3 years at surgery. After scoring, 59% (136) of patients were classified as grade I, 26% (60) as grade II, and 14% (33) as grade III. The pathological results were 124 dermoid cases, 76 lipodermoid, 5 complex choristoma, and 10 epibulbar osseous choristoma. Moreover , patients with lower clinical scores presented a better prognosis; the mean logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) best-corrected visual acuity in grade I patients was 0.38 6 0.05, which was better than the grade II value of 0.61 6 0.09 (P , 0.05) and the grade III value of 0.94 6 0.11 (P , 0.001). Conclusions: New grading systems for limbal dermoid were useful for clinical diagnosis and may have prognostic value in predicting visual acuity. A lower-grade dermoid exhibited better vision postoperatively.

One hundred eighty‐nine surgically resected hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) were analyzed to study tumor encapsulation and the pathologic features that might account for the better prognosis in relation to it, and to examine the prognostic and pathobiologic significance of capsular thickness. Tumor encapsulation was found in 72 (46.8%) of the 154 cases with adequate histologic sections of the tumor‐nontumor junctions. Encapsulated tumors showed a much lower incidence of direct liver invasion (P < 0.0001), tumor microsatellites (P < 0.0001), and venous permeation (P = 0.02) when compared with non‐encapsulated ones. Significantly better disease‐free and actuarial survival times were observed in patients with encapsulated tumors (medians, 9.9 and 18.3 months, respectively), compared with those with nonencapsulated ones (medians, 4.0 and 5.9 months, respectively; P = 0.0001 and 0.001, respectively). The incidence of tumor encapsulation did not increase or decrease with tumor size. Tumor encapsulation did not correlate with the presence of cirrhosis or the abundance of tumor stroma, suggesting that formation of the tumor capsule was independent of the degree of fibrosis within and outside the tumor, Among the 72 cases of encapsulated HCC, the capsular thickness ranged from 0.13 to 3.09 mm (mean ± standard deviation = 0.87 ± 0.59 mm), and it was unrelated to tumor size or presence of cirrhosis. Although it was apparent that a lower extensive tumor invasiveness contributed significantly to the better prognosis in encapsulated HCC, there was no correlation between capsular thickness and liver invasion, microsatellites, venous permeation, or survivals. Therefore, the thickness of tumor capsules was not helpful in prognostication.

Assessment of angiogenesis may yield important information for an effective antiangiogenic treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) because HCC is characteristically hypervascular We examined the relationship of microvessel density (MVD), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and VEGF receptors Flt-1 and Flk-1/KDR in 50 patients with HCC and in 3 hepatoma cell lines. VEGF messenger RNA (mRNA) was overexpressed in 26 tumors (52%), and the 3 VEGF isoforms (121, 165, and 189) were present in high frequencies. Flt-1 mRNA was overexpressed in 34 tumors (68%), with levels significantly increased in HCCs compared with the nontumorous livers. Tumor Flt-1 mRNA significantly correlated with tumor VEGF mRNA levels. Within the group of tumors 8.5 cm or less in diameter, tumors with intrahepatic metastasis in the form of tumor microsatellite formation had significantly higher VEGF mRNA levels. MVD assessed by immunohistochemical analysis with CD34 antibody was inversely related to tumor size. Angiogenesis as assessed by MVD and tumor VEGF expression seems to have a more important role in tumor growth and intrahepatic metastasis in smaller HCCs. The differential up-regulation of Flt-1 suggests that it may have an important role in angiogenesis in HCC.

Background. In patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, surgical resection may offer a chance of cure. However, tumor recurrence is not infrequent after resection. Methods. To identify the pathologic factors that are of prognostic significance and predictive value in tumor recurrence, the authors studied 278 patients (243 men, 35 women) who had hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma. Disease free and actuarial survival were correlated with 20 pathologic parameters of the resected specimens using multivariate analysis. Results. The median follow‐up period was 23.6 months. The overall disease free survival rates at 1, 3 and 5 years were 42%, 23%, and 17%, respectively, and the overall actuarial survival rates for the corresponding time periods were 70%, 39%, and 28%, respectively. The results indicated that tumor encapsulation (P = 0.004) and heavy intratumor inflammatory infiltrates (P = 0.003) were independent favorable factors related to tumor recurrence. Negative resection margins (P = 0.001) and heavy intratumor inflammatory infiltrates (P = 0.003) were independent favorable factors correlated with survival. Conclusions. From this analysis, it was determined that detailed histologic examination of resected specimens of hepatocellular carcinoma is important in assessing long term prognosis and stratification of patients for treatment.