ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the clinicopathologic characteristics and prognostic factors of primary clear cell carcinoma of the liver(PCCCL). Methods A total of 214 PCCCL patients treated by curative resection from January 1996 to March 2006 were retrospectively analyzed. Results The 1-,3-,and 5-year overall survival (OS) rates for PCCCL patients were significantly better than those of non-clear cell hepatocellular carcinoma ( NHCC ) patients ( 90.2％,70.6％,and 55.9％ vs 82.8％,62.7％ and 47.7％,P =0.001 ).Tumor size was significantly smaller in PCCCL group than in NHCC group ( x2 =4.37,P =0.04 ).Tumors of PCCCL group had a lower incidence of vascular invasion ( x2 =9.42,P =0.002) and a better differentiation than those of NHCC group ( x2 =4.30,P =0.04).Serum a-fetoprotein (AFP) level,tumor size,liver cirrhosis,and vascular invasion were independent risk factors impacting OS and disease-free survival (DFS) of PCCCL. Conclusions PCCCL is an uncommon subtype of HCC and has different clinicopathologic characteristics from NHCC. Complete surgical resection is the optimal treatment for PCCCL and its prognosis is much better than that of NHCC.