Most of the liver cancers in China develop on the basis of hepatitis B, hepatitis C and liver cirrhosis. According to the statistics of the Liver Oncology Department of Southern Hospital of Southern Medical University, 80% of liver cancer patients have a history of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, and about 10% of liver cancer patients develop from hepatitis C. Guangdong is a high prevalence area of hepatitis B. The trilogy of chronic HBV infection development “hepatitis – cirrhosis – liver cancer” is the most worrying problem for doctors and patients. In view of this, systematic management of hepatitis B patients, early detection of liver cancer and appropriate treatment are of great importance to curb the risk of liver cancer. The treatment of liver cancer requires a combination of technical means from multiple disciplines, such as the treatment of hepatitis by infection department (hepatology), vascular intervention by interventional department, and surgery by surgery, etc. No department can “take over” all aspects of liver cancer treatment. In reality, when patients go to hospitals, they often do not know which department they should go to, and are prone to the misconception of “following the customs”, i.e., which treatment should be done in which department they go to. Inappropriate treatment not only has little effect, but may even delay the disease. Experts at home and abroad have been making continuous efforts to change this treatment pattern, and it is in this context that the multidisciplinary collaboration model (MDT) of liver tumor in Southern Hospital of Southern Medical University was born. ”Before there was multidisciplinary collaboration, all departments related to liver cancer diagnosis and treatment in the hospital were basically doing their own work, for example, the Health Management Center focused on the upstream of the disease. -For example, the Health Management Center focused on the upstream of the disease – the medical examination and screening of patients; the Infection Department or Liver Disease Department focused on the midstream of the disease – the treatment of hepatitis and cirrhosis; while the Gastroenterology Department or Surgery Department focused on the downstream of the disease – the surgical treatment of liver cancer. According to Prof. Guo Yabing, director of the liver tumor ward of the hospital, in 2011, the hospital formed the liver tumor ward (as shown in the picture), which brings together liver cancer patients originally distributed in nine departments of the hospital for management, and forms a multidisciplinary expert collaboration group with experts from liver disease center, medical oncology, hepatobiliary surgery, interventional medicine, gastroenterology, imaging center, radiotherapy and pathology to guide the standardized liver tumor treatment in the hospital. The multidisciplinary expert collaboration group is to guide the standardized treatment of liver tumor in the hospital. The multidisciplinary collaborative group of liver tumor is like a chain that closely links upstream, midstream and downstream, directly managing patients from the upstream of the disease, and the expert group provides “one-stop” professional medical services for patients, so that patients do not have to go back and forth in all related departments of the hospital, reducing the time for consultation and diagnosis and grasping the best time for treatment. This will reduce the time for consultation and diagnosis, and ensure the best time for treatment, so that early diagnosis and treatment can be achieved, thus improving the prognosis of patients with liver cancer and other diseases. At present, the multidisciplinary collaboration group of liver tumor in the hospital mainly operates in two ways: firstly, experts from various disciplines are integrated into the daily check-ups to keep an eye on the changes of patients’ conditions; secondly, multidisciplinary expert consultations are held regularly to discuss the conditions and develop a treatment mode that is most suitable for the patients. Professor Hou Jinlin, director of the Infectious Diseases Branch of the Chinese Medical Association and director of the Department of Infectious Diseases of Southern Hospital, said that every patient who visits the Liver Cancer Center will receive a comprehensive assessment by the experts of the Liver Cancer Multidisciplinary Collaborative Group, and then a standardized and reasonable treatment plan will be formulated for the patient. Interventional therapy, radiotherapy, targeted drugs, cellular immunotherapy and comprehensive supportive therapy, etc.) to carry out fine and professional treatment, and after treatment, the liver tumor center will carry out unified long-term follow-up and tracking services to realize systematic management of patients. Collaboration combined with follow-up promotes early diagnosis of liver cancer In addition to multidisciplinary collaboration, the follow-up service implemented by the hospital for 10 years has also improved the early detection rate of liver cancer. Professor Guo Yabing said that the most crucial thing in liver cancer treatment is early detection. Early stage liver cancer can generally be cured by many means, and even if some early stage patients may recur 5 years after surgery, new technology – cellular immunomodulation therapy – can be used to reduce recurrence. However, there is no particularly effective eradication method for advanced liver cancer. Therefore, it is very important to detect early cancer due to hepatitis and cirrhosis. The follow-up service has exactly this function. The liver disease center of the hospital has a whole set of long-term follow-up system for chronic hepatitis, providing patients with free diagnosis and treatment guidance, including the establishment of a confidential personal health file for patients, consultation guidance, appointment with physicians, transmission of test results, SMS reminders, etc., so that patients can receive long-term follow-up guidance from professional physicians. Patients can come to the hospital once every three months or six months for ultrasound and fetoprotein test screening and monitoring of liver function changes, so that they can grasp the process of disease development, and once the liver shows signs of cancer or hepatitis recurrence, doctors can seize the opportunity to provide timely treatment. Multidisciplinary collaboration combined with follow-up service is a two-pronged approach to detect more and more early liver cancers (small liver cancers). In the past 1.5 years since the establishment of the multidisciplinary liver tumor group, about 1500 liver cancer patients have been admitted to the liver tumor ward, 75% of which were diagnosed at an early stage, which has greatly improved the prognosis of early treatment of liver cancer patients and is expected to increase their 5-year survival rate. Multidisciplinary expert consultation to avoid over-treatment Multidisciplinary expert consultation to avoid over-treatment Multidisciplinary collaboration is easy to be misunderstood as giving different treatments to patients from different disciplines, but in fact, it is not. The multidisciplinary model is precisely designed to reduce overtreatment. The multidisciplinary collaboration model, through expert consultation, can establish individualized and standardized treatment plans for patients after clarifying their conditions, thus avoiding over-testing and treatment, or inappropriate treatment. This model can also correct the tendency of patients to seek medical treatment blindly, which is an effective measure to prevent overtreatment. Professor Hou Jinlin said that it is the consensus and general trend of experts at home and abroad to realize the standardized treatment of liver cancer through the multidisciplinary collaboration model of liver tumor. The multidisciplinary collaboration model provides great convenience for patients to seek medical treatment, and is also conducive to the long-term development of various disciplines and hospitals, which is worthy of further promotion in the future.