Treatment options in hepatocellular carcinoma today

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third most common cause of cancer related death worldwide. As over 90% of HCCs arise in cirrhotic livers preventive methods and surveillance policies have been adopted in most countries with high prevalence of hepatitis B or C infected people. Poor prognosis of HCC has shown some improvement during the last years. Targeted therapy with radiofrequency ablation (RFA), hepatic resection (HR), liver transplantation (LT), and transcatheter arterial chemoembolisation (TACE) seems to have an influence on this development. The heterogeneity of cirrhotic patients with HCC is still a big challenge. A patient with a small tumour in a cirrhotic liver may have a worse prognosis than a patient with a large tumor in a relatively preserved liver after "curative" HR. The choice of the treatment modality depends on the size and the number of tumours, the stage and the cause of cirrhosis and finally on the availability of various modalities in each centre.