[Surgical treatment of primary liver malignancies]

The incidence of primary malignant liver tumours is globally rising. Hepatocellular carcinoma constitutes 75-85% of primary liver malignancies. Owing to advancements of oncological therapies, several methods are available to combat the tumour. Upon the complexity of the disease and the wide spectrum of therapeutical regimens, therapy of HCC is debated, with several undecided issues. Noteworthy, however, is that in early tumour stages, as a de facto curative approach, surgical therapy remains the most effective, allowing long-term survival. Intrahepatic cholangiocellular carcinoma (iCCC) is the second most frequent primary malignant liver tumour. Despite technical developments, prognosis of iCCC patients remains dismal. Unfortunately, as the sole curative approach, surgery (nearing 40% 5-year survival) is mostly contraindicated because of a late diagnosis. In these cases, median survival remains below 7-12 months despite parallel palliative therapies. The present review focuses on the surgical management of primary malignant liver tumours.