Surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)is considered a standard of care for patients with chronic liver disease who are at risk of developing this malignancy.Several studies have shown that surveillance can imp...Surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)is considered a standard of care for patients with chronic liver disease who are at risk of developing this malignancy.Several studies have shown that surveillance can improve the prognosis of patients diagnosed with HCC through an increased likelihood of application of curative or effective treatments.Repetition of liver ultrasonography(US)every 6 mo is the recommended surveillance program to detect early HCCs,and a positive US has to entrain a well-defined recall policy based on contrast-enhanced,dynamic radiological imaging or biopsy for the diagnosis of HCC.Although HCC fulfills the accepted criteria regarding cost-effective cancer screening and surveillance,the implementation of surveillance in clinical practice is defective and this has a negative impact on the cost-effectiveness of the procedure.Education of both physicians and patients is of paramount importance in order to improve the surveillance application and its benefits in patients at risk of HCC.The promotion of specific educational programs for practitioners,clinicians and patients is instrumental in order to expand the correct use of surveillance in clinical practice and eventually improve HCC prognosis.展开更多
Criteria for liver transplantation(LT)for hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)and post-LT indicators of prognosis are historically based on the measurement of the tumor mass.Recently,high throughput technologies have increas...Criteria for liver transplantation(LT)for hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)and post-LT indicators of prognosis are historically based on the measurement of the tumor mass.Recently,high throughput technologies have increased the prediction of recurrence,but these tools are not yet routinely available.The interaction between HCC and the immune system has revealed an imbalance of lymphocyte phenotypes in the peritumoral tissue,and the increase of regulatory T cells with respect to cytotoxic lymphocytes has been linked to a higher rate of post-LT HCC recurrence.Moreover,some inflammatory markers have shown good reliability in predicting cancer reappearance after surgery,as a result of either a systemic inflammatory response or a decreased capacity of the organism to control the tumor growth.Among these markers,the neutrophil-tolymphocyte ratio appears to be the most promising and easily available serum parameter able to predict HCC recurrence after LT and following other types of treatment,although the exact mechanisms determining its elevation have not been clarified.Post-LT immunosuppression may impact on cancer control,and the exposure to high levels of calcineurin inhibitors or other immunusuppressants has recently emerged as a negative prognostic factor for HCC recurrence and patient survival.Despite the absence of prospective randomized trials,inhibitors of the mammalian target of rapamycin have been shown to be associated with lower rates of tumor recurrence compared to other immunosuppressors,suggesting their use especially in patients with HCC exceeding the conventional indication criteria for LT.展开更多
文摘Surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)is considered a standard of care for patients with chronic liver disease who are at risk of developing this malignancy.Several studies have shown that surveillance can improve the prognosis of patients diagnosed with HCC through an increased likelihood of application of curative or effective treatments.Repetition of liver ultrasonography(US)every 6 mo is the recommended surveillance program to detect early HCCs,and a positive US has to entrain a well-defined recall policy based on contrast-enhanced,dynamic radiological imaging or biopsy for the diagnosis of HCC.Although HCC fulfills the accepted criteria regarding cost-effective cancer screening and surveillance,the implementation of surveillance in clinical practice is defective and this has a negative impact on the cost-effectiveness of the procedure.Education of both physicians and patients is of paramount importance in order to improve the surveillance application and its benefits in patients at risk of HCC.The promotion of specific educational programs for practitioners,clinicians and patients is instrumental in order to expand the correct use of surveillance in clinical practice and eventually improve HCC prognosis.
文摘Criteria for liver transplantation(LT)for hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)and post-LT indicators of prognosis are historically based on the measurement of the tumor mass.Recently,high throughput technologies have increased the prediction of recurrence,but these tools are not yet routinely available.The interaction between HCC and the immune system has revealed an imbalance of lymphocyte phenotypes in the peritumoral tissue,and the increase of regulatory T cells with respect to cytotoxic lymphocytes has been linked to a higher rate of post-LT HCC recurrence.Moreover,some inflammatory markers have shown good reliability in predicting cancer reappearance after surgery,as a result of either a systemic inflammatory response or a decreased capacity of the organism to control the tumor growth.Among these markers,the neutrophil-tolymphocyte ratio appears to be the most promising and easily available serum parameter able to predict HCC recurrence after LT and following other types of treatment,although the exact mechanisms determining its elevation have not been clarified.Post-LT immunosuppression may impact on cancer control,and the exposure to high levels of calcineurin inhibitors or other immunusuppressants has recently emerged as a negative prognostic factor for HCC recurrence and patient survival.Despite the absence of prospective randomized trials,inhibitors of the mammalian target of rapamycin have been shown to be associated with lower rates of tumor recurrence compared to other immunosuppressors,suggesting their use especially in patients with HCC exceeding the conventional indication criteria for LT.
