Treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer in the world, and is the third highest cause of cancer-related mortality. HCC usually develops in patients with chronic liver disease, particularly in those who also have cirrhosis. The possibility of curative treatment depends on both the stage of tumor and liver function. Effective treatments for HCC include percutaneous ablation, surgical resection, and liver transplantation. Both percutaneous ablation and surgical resection provide a high rate of complete responses and are assumed to improve survival that should exceed 50% at 5 years. Liver transplantation results in a better survival rate, and is not contraindicated by advanced liver dysfunction. However, its application is limited by the scarcity of donor organs. Treatments for advanced HCC include transarterial chemoembolization and chemotherapy. Although short-term prognosis of HCC patients has improved recently due to advances in early diagnosis and treatment, long-term prognosis is as yet far from satisfactory due to frequent recurrence. Prevention of recurrence of HCC remains one of the most challenging tasks in current hepatology.