Multimodal therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma: the role of surgery

OBJECTIVE: Liver cancer is one of the widest spread malignancies in the world and its incidence is still on the rise. The surgical resection of liver cancer has become a widely performed procedure with considerably improved outcomes, low mortality rate, transfusions, and post-op bed stay. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our goal with this paper was to conduct a narrative review of the literature in regard to the surgical treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). RESULTS: There are various modalities of treatment for the HCC, e.g., hepatic resection, LT, or radiofrequency ablation (RFA) - the selection of a specific treatment regimen plays a decisive role in the survival rate of the patient and this, in turn, is guided by factors like size and distribution of lesion and the stage of malignancy. A more efficient patient selection for each treatment increases the survival rate of the patients in each subgroup. CONCLUSIONS: Surgical procedures play a crucial role in treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma as part of a multimodal therapy.