The treatment options for primary liver cancer in adults are classified according to Barcelona staging (Barcelona clinic liver cancer, BCLC) as follows:
Stage 0, stage A, stage B adult primary liver cancer
The treatment options for stage 0 (very early stage), stage A (early stage), and stage B (intermediate stage) adult primary hepatocellular carcinoma are as follows:
- Monitoring of tumor lesions smaller than 1 cm;
- Partial hepatectomy;
- Total hepatectomy and liver transplantation;
- Ablation of tumors by several methods.
- Radiofrequency ablation
- Microwave therapy
- Transdermal anhydrous ethanol injection
- Cryoablation
- Participation in clinical trials of electroporation therapy.
Stage C, D adult primary liver cancer
The treatment options for stage C (advanced/progressive) and stage D (end-stage) adult primary hepatocellular carcinoma are as follows:
- Embolytic therapy using one of the following approaches.
- Transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE);
- arterial chemoembolization (TACE);
- transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE)
- targeted therapy;
- radiation therapy;
- Participation in clinical trials of targeted therapies after chemoembolization or chemotherapy combined with targeted therapies;
- Participation in clinical trials of novel targeted agents;
- Participation in clinical trials of targeted therapy combined with or without body stereotactic radiotherapy;
- Participation in clinical trials of stereotactic radiotherapy or proton beam radiotherapy.