[Treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma: hepatic resection and liver transplantation]

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has become a major public health problem since it's incidence is continuously growing and a high mortality is related. The programs have permitted the early detection of HCC in order to apply the curative available treatment strategies. Hepatic resection is still the elective method for non-cirrhotic patients with HCC. Tumoral postresection recurrence is frequent (60-70%) and it is represented by intrahepatic metastasis or by the development of a new tumor. Milan criteria for liver transplantation need a new extension; despite improvement in surgical technique and immunosuppression, there are still many unknown aspects regarding the selection of the patients and the time needed to find the donor for transplantation.