New trends in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma

  Different treatment options are available for different tumor stages. 1.Very early stage: i.e. in situ cancer with only a single lesion in the liver and diameter <2cm, can be treated by surgical resection, liver transplantation, anhydrous alcohol injection or radiofrequency ablation. 2.Early stage: i.e. one lesion with diameter >2cm or <3 nodules with total diameter <3cm in the liver, can be treated by liver transplantation, anhydrous alcohol injection or radiofrequency ablation. 3.Middle stage: i.e. multiple nodules in the liver but no portal vein thrombosis, can be treated by hepatic artery embolization chemotherapy. 4.End stage: i.e. with portal vein invasion or distant metastasis, can be treated by sorafenib. There are multiple nodules but no portal vein cancer thrombus, and hepatic artery embolization chemotherapy is used. 4.Late stage: i.e. there is portal vein invasion or distant metastasis, and treatment with sorefni can be considered. 5.End stage: patients can generally only use symptomatic treatment. According to statistics, patients with very early stage and early stage liver cancer only account for 30%, middle and late stage account for 50% and end stage account for 20%.  For early stage liver cancer patients, there are new developments and breakthroughs in various treatment methods, such as the emergence of minimally invasive radical surgery, the introduction of liver transplantation recipient selection criteria for liver cancer, and the development of clinical trials of molecular targeted drug therapy and immunotherapy. For patients with intermediate and advanced stages, hepatic artery embolization chemotherapy is a partially effective treatment method, and hepatic artery embolization chemotherapy + molecular targeted drugs, hepatic artery embolization chemotherapy + focal intra-arterial therapy, and hepatic artery embolization chemotherapy + radiotherapy are currently advocated. For patients with end-stage disease, the focus is on molecular targeted drug therapy and new combination therapies.