Hepatocellular carcinoma from the internist's and the surgeon's point of view

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the 5th most common cancer in the world and the 3rd cause of cancer-related death. Despite therapeutic advances, the overall survival of patients with HCC has not significantly improved in the last decades. Because in the majority of patients HCCs develop in a cirrhotic liver, the patient's prognosis depends not only on the tumor stage but also on the liver function. Patients at an early stage with an asymptomatic single HCC with a maximum diameter of 5 cm or up to three nodules each less than 3 cm may benefit from curative therapies, including resection, liver transplantation, and percutaneous ablation. Patients exceeding these limits, but who are free of cancer-related symptoms and vascular invasion or extrahepatic spread, may benefit from palliation with chemoembolization. The advanced stage is characterized by mild cancer-related symptoms and/or vascu-lar invasion or extrahepatic spread. Patients at this stage are eligible for treatment with sorafenib; however, a variety of other new drugs, including small molecules and antibodies, are being tested in randomized controlled trials. The development and evaluation of novel HCC treatment strategies as well as the implementation of existing measures and the development of new ones to prevent HCCs are of utmost importance. A better understanding of the clinical and molecular pathogenesis of HCCs should lead to improved diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive strategies, with the aim to reduce the incidence of HCC, one of the most devastating malignancies worldwide.