Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Exp Med. Feb 20, 2016; 6(1): 21-36
Published online Feb 20, 2016. doi: 10.5493/wjem.v6.i1.21
Hepatocellular carcinoma: Where are we?
Roberto Mazzanti, Umberto Arena, Renato Tassi
Roberto Mazzanti, Umberto Arena, Renato Tassi, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, School of Sciences of Human Health, University of Florence, 50134 Firenze, Italy
Author contributions: Mazzanti R wrote the general part of the article, epidemiology, treatment and a general review of the subject; Tassi R wrote most of the biology of HCC, while Arena U wrote the diagnostic aspects.
Supported by Fondazione Italiana per lo Studio del Fegato - Italian Liver Foundation, Firenze, via Banchi 6, 50123, Italy.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no any conflict of interest.
Open-Access: 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/
Correspondence to: Roberto Mazzanti, MD, Professor, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, School of Sciences of Human Health, University of Florence, Largo Brambilla 3, 50134 Firenze, Italy. roberto.mazzanti@unifi.it
Telephone: +39-055-416635 Fax: +39-055-417123
Received: July 30, 2015
Peer-review started: July 31, 2015
First decision: September 16, 2015
Revised: December 14, 2015
Accepted: January 5, 2016
Article in press: January 7, 2016
Published online: February 20, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: This review summarizes on the current state of the art of treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). After a brief chapter on epidemiology, risk factors and biology of HCC, the review presents all possible therapeutic approaches for HCC, from the most effective such as liver transplantation to important but palliative treatments which can prolong patient survival such as different types of trans-artery-chemo-embolization and chemotherapy.