Hepatocellular carcinoma: current management and recent advances

Abstract

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major health problem worldwide. It is the fifth most common cancer in the world, and the third most common cause of cancer-related death. Without specific treatment, the prognosis is very poor. The goal of management is "cancer control"--a reduction in its incidence and mortality as well as an improvement in the quality of life of patients with HCC and their families. This article aims to review the current management of HCC and its recent advances.

Data sources: A MEDLINE database search was performed to identify relevant article using the keywords "hepatocellular carcinoma", "hepatectomy", "liver transplantation", and "local ablative therapy". Additional papers and book chapters were identified by a manual search of the references from the key articles.

Results: Liver resection and liver transplantation remain the options that give the best chance of a cure. Recent evidence suggests that local ablative therapy may offer comparable survival results in patients with small HCC, and preserved liver function. Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is the most promising palliative modality for unresectable HCC, but other techniques, such as transarterial radioembolization (TARE), and local ablative therapy, have also shown comparable results.

Conclusions: Early diagnosis of HCC remains a key goal in improving the prognosis of patients. During the last two decades, operative mortality and surgical outcome of liver resection and liver transplantation for HCC have improved. Progress also has been made in multi-modality therapy which can increase the chance of survival and improve the quality of life for patients with advanced HCC.