[Treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma in the cirrhotic liver]

The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in cirrhotic patients is increasing. Despite advances in imaging and laboratory screening which allow earlier diagnosis, the surgeon is all too often confronted with an HCC of advanced stage or arising in the setting of severe cirrhosis; this severely limits the treatment possibilities. Treatment options are constrained not only by the characteristics of the tumor but also by hepatocellular reserve, severity of portal hypertension, and the general condition of the host. "Curative treatments" envisage the complete eradication of the malignancy; they include liver transplantation, resection, or tumor destruction by radiofrequency or alcohol ablation. They are most effective in the early stages of HCC. Total hepatectomy and transplantation, by far the most complex surgical therapy, also has the best results avoiding the all-too-frequent local recurrence of HCC in the residual liver. Other medical and interventional treatments (chemo-embolization, radiotherapy with lipiodol) can only slow the progress of the HCC. Goals for the future include more precise and directed screening of the population at risk, and better chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic treatments.