title: Vascular architecture: is it a helpful histopathological biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma?
abstract: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains one of the major public health problems throughout the world. Although originally associated with tumorigenic processes, liver angiogenesis has also been observed in the context of different liver inflammatory, fibrotic, and ischemic conditions. Here we investigate the fractal dimension as a quantitator of non-Euclidean two-dimensional vascular geometry in a series of paired specimens of primary HCC and surrounding non-tumoral tissue, and discuss why this parameter might provide additional information regarding cancer behavior. The application of fractal geometry to the measurement of liver vascularity and the availability of a computer-aided quantitative method can eliminate errors in visual interpretation, and make it possible to obtain closer-to-reality numerals that are compulsory for any measurement process.
authors: Laboratories of Quantitative Medicine, Istituto Clinico Humanitas IRCCS, 20089 Rozzano, Milan, Italy. fabio.grizzi@humanitas.it
authors: Fabio
authors: F
authors: Grizzi
authors: Barbara
authors: B
authors: Franceschini
authors: Barbara
authors: B
authors: Fiamengo
authors: Carlo
authors: C
authors: Russo
authors: Nicola
authors: N
authors: Dioguardi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000098:blood supply / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000098:blood supply*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply / Q000473:pathology*; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor