de Mattos AZ, Bombassaro IZ, Vogel A, Debes JD. Hepatocellular carcinoma-the role of the underlying liver disease in clinical practice. World J Gastroenterol 2024; 30(19): 2488-2495 [PMID: 38817660 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v30.i19.2488]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Angelo Zambam de Mattos, MD, MSc, PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor, Attending Doctor, Department of Internal Medicine, Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, No. 154 Professor Annes Dias St, RS, Porto Alegre 90020090, Brazil. angeloz@ufcspa.edu.br
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Editorial
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. May 21, 2024; 30(19): 2488-2495 Published online May 21, 2024. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v30.i19.2488
Hepatocellular carcinoma-the role of the underlying liver disease in clinical practice
Angelo Zambam de Mattos, Isadora Zanotelli Bombassaro, Arndt Vogel, Jose D Debes
Angelo Zambam de Mattos, Department of Internal Medicine, Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, RS, Porto Alegre 90020090, Brazil
Isadora Zanotelli Bombassaro, Graduate Program in Medicine: Hepatology, Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre, RS, Porto Alegre 90050-170, Brazil
Arndt Vogel, Division of Gastroenterology Hepatology, University of Toronto, Hannover M5R 0A3, Canada
Jose D Debes, Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States
Author contributions: de Mattos AZ, Bombassaro IZ, Vogel A, and Debes JD contributed with conception of the manuscript, and literature review and analysis. All authors contributed with drafting and critical revision of the manuscript and all authors approved the final version of the paper.
Supported byEuropean-Latin American ESCALON Consortium, EU Horizon 2020 Program, No. 825510; and National Institutes of Health, No. NIH R21 TW012390-01A1.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Angelo Zambam de Mattos, MD, MSc, PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor, Attending Doctor, Department of Internal Medicine, Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, No. 154 Professor Annes Dias St, RS, Porto Alegre 90020090, Brazil. angeloz@ufcspa.edu.br
Received: January 10, 2024 Revised: February 10, 2024 Accepted: April 23, 2024 Published online: May 21, 2024
Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common causes of cancer-related mortality. This particular type of cancer has the distinctive characteristic of mostly happening in individuals with an underlying liver disease. This makes the management of patients more challenging, since physicians must take into consideration two different conditions, the chronic liver disease and the tumor. The underlying liver disease has several implications in clinical practice, because different kinds of chronic liver disease can lead to varying degrees of risk of developing HCC, obstacles in surveillance, and differences in the efficacy of the treatment against HCC. A shift in the prevalence of liver diseases has been evident over the last few years, with viral hepatitis gradually losing the leading position as cause of HCC and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease gaining importance. Therefore, in an era of personalized medicine, it is imperative that physicians are aware of the underlying liver disease of individuals with HCC and its impact in the management of their tumors.
Core Tip: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) almost always develops in patients with chronic liver disease. The underlying liver disease has an important role in clinical practice, as it may have implications in the risk of developing HCC, as well as in surveillance, diagnosis and treatment of liver cancer. In an era of personalized medicine, it is imperative that physicians are aware of the underlying liver disease of individuals with HCC and that they plan the management of these patients accordingly.
