Future perspectives for hepatocellular carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Five facets of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are identified that impact on future directions in the management of the disease: epidemiology, prevention, screening, diagnosis and therapy. Recent papers on HCC have been reviewed, and predictions have been made on developments in HCC over the next decade. DISCUSSION: It is predicted that hepatitis B-related HCC will decrease with vaccination, while hepatitis C-related HCC will become an increasing problem. Antiviral treatment and chemopreventive agents will prevent HCC development. Whole-population screening will not be an option, but screening is justified for individuals who can pay for it. There will be more emphasis on the use of tumour markers. Transabdominal ultrasound and triphasic spiral computed tomography will remain important radiological imaging techniques. The results of liver resection will not improve unless neoadjuvant/adjuvant therapy is proven to be effective. More patients with initially unresectable HCC will be down-staged to become resectable with improvements in local, regional and systemic therapies. Liver transplantation will be increasingly used. Local ablative therapy will improve the quality of survival but will have no impact on overall survival compared with surgical resection. The author hopes to review the accuracy of these predictions in 2013.