TREATMENT OF HEPATOCELLULAR-CARCINOMA

Treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a critical issue p articularly in the endemic areas. This paper summarizes the literature in the recent 4 years and the author's data. Substantial progress has been found in the treatment of HCC during the recent decades, which w as mainly a result of advances in medical imaging, aggressive surgical approach, regional cancer therapies and multidisciplinary approach. S urgical approaches that resulted in significant prolonged survival inc luded: resection (particularly small HCC resection), re-resection for subclinical recurrence, cytoreduction and sequential resection for ini tially unresectable HCC, and liver transplantation for small HCC. In n onsurgery, regional cancer therapy has been a new trend, which include s transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, percutaneous ethanol injec tion for small HCC, and others. As a result of multimodality combinati on treatment and changing concepts in surgical oncology, the role of s urgery in the treatment of HCC has become bigger. However, the inadequ acy of regional cancer therapies, its multicentric origin and tumor in vasiveness remain major targets to be studied for a curative treatment .