Clinical heterogeneity brought about by tumor-initiating cells in primary liver cancer and the development of new therapeutic strategy by regulating microRNAs.

肝细胞癌不能根据其表型表达进行分类，因为有不同的模式。相反，在肝内胆管癌中，Notch 2在56%的病例中表达。虽然Notch 2表达与CD 44表达呈负相关，但这种表达与c-Kit表达显著相关，表明Notch 2阳性表达的肝内胆管癌可能来源于肝祖细胞。Notch 2表达阳性患者的生存率明显高于Notch 2表达阴性患者，提示Notch 2表达可能与肝内胆管癌的临床行为有关。MUC 1、MUC 2和p53在胆管内乳头状肿瘤中的表达与常规肝内胆管癌不同。

Hepatocellular carcinomas could not be classified according to their phenotypic expression, since there were diverse patterns. In contrast, in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas, Notch2 was expressed in 56% of cases. Although Notch2 expression was inversely correlated with CD44 expression, this expression was significantly associated with c-Kit expression, suggesting that intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma with positive Notch2 expression might be derived from hepatic progenitor cells. Survival among patients with positive Notch2 expression was significantly better than that among patients with negative Notch2 expression, indicating that Notch2 expression might have a connection with clinical behavior of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas. The expressions of MUC1 and MUC2, as well as p53, in intraductal papillary neoplasms of the bile duct were found to be different from those in conventional intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas.