[Diagnosis and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma]

Worldwide, hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most common intra-abdominal malignancy. It occurs mostly in patients who are carriers of the hepatitis B or C virus and/or have liver cirrhosis. There is no screening-test for early recognition of the development of liver cancer and this delays often an accurate diagnosis and early treatment. Resection is the best form of treatment offering a chance of cure. In the last decades, considerable progress has been made in the field of liver diagnostic and operative techniques for liver resection. This has been followed by an increase in the resection rate of patients with malignant liver tumours and by a decrease in postoperative morbidity and mortality. Nowadays, after curative resection, 5-year survival rates up to 30% can be achieved. Promising results are also obtained by new adjuvant therapeutic modalities demonstrating improvement in survival. Therefore, in the field of malignant liver tumours there is no more space for therapeutic nihilismus.