Hepatocellular carcinoma and type 2 diabetes mellitus: two cases highlighting changes in tumor glycogen content

This article reports two patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), who showed marked changes in hepatocellular glycogen content. Periodic acid-Schiff (PAS)-positive and diastase-PAS-negative (glycogen-storing) hepatocytes were detected in both background liver parenchyma and in HCC tissues. In HCC tissues, the number of glycogen-storing cells resembling hepatocytes was considerably reduced and unevenly distributed as compared with hepatocytes in background liver. To be known, changes in hepatocellular glycogen content in T2DM patients have not been previously described. It is hypothesized that the reduction in glycogen content in both patients was likely associated with the emergence of Warburg type of glycolysis