Understanding Liver Cancer A Tale of Two Diseases

Understanding Liver Cancer is a concise and up-to-date review, which discusses diagnosis, management, patient care, current and emerging therapies, and useful resources that clinicians can provide to their patients. Busy healthcare professionals who want a quick review of liver cancer as well as a summary of current therapies will benefit from this succinct text.

1. Introduction to hepatocellular carcinoma -Introduction, incidence and geography, causes of hepatocellular carcinoma, prevention, surveillance screening, biology of human hepatocellular carcinoma. 2. Clinical disease evaluation - Diagnosis A: Radiology, Diagnosis B: Blood tests, tumor markers, Diagnosis C: Biopsy - a debate, assessment of tumour extent for treatment planning: staging classifications, the new patient assessment. 3. Management of hepatocellular carcinoma - General treatment choices, therapies with curative intent, non-curative therapies, systemic drugs, assessment of responses to therapy: what do tumor size responses signify? 4. The whole patient setting - Therapy decisions for the individual patient: importance of a multidisciplinary team approach, psychosocial considerations, family, support groups. 5. New directions 6. Addendum - Abbreviations, extended.