Diagnosis and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Several advances have been produced in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. It is possible to diagnose the neoplasm at an early stage when radical treatment options may be applied. The criteria to apply them successfully have been refined and the expected outcome has been improved, but we still lack a useful treatment for the vast majority of patients who are still diagnosed at an advanced stage. Efforts have to be done during the next years to develop such an option (perhaps based on gene manipulation) and until then the management of this tumour will still constitute a challenge for physicians taking care of patients with this neoplasm.