Inchingolo R, Acquafredda F, Tedeschi M, Laera L, Surico G, Surgo A, Fiorentino A, Spiliopoulos S, de’Angelis N, Memeo R. Worldwide management of hepatocellular carcinoma during the COVID-19 pandemic. World J Gastroenterol 2021; 27(25): 3780-3789 [PMID: 34321843 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i25.3780]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Riccardo Inchingolo, MD, Chief Doctor, Director, Department of Interventional Radiology Unit, “F. Miulli” General Regional Hospital, Strada Prov. 127 Acquaviva–Santeramo, Acquaviva delle Fonti 70021, Bari, Italy. riccardoin@hotmail.it
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Riccardo Inchingolo, Fabrizio Acquafredda, Department of Interventional Radiology Unit, “F. Miulli” General Regional Hospital, Acquaviva delle Fonti 70021, Bari, Italy
Michele Tedeschi, Riccardo Memeo, Unit of Hepato-Pancreatic-Biliary Surgery, “F. Miulli” General Regional Hospital, Acquaviva delle Fonti 70124, Bari, Italy
Letizia Laera, Gianmarco Surico, Department of Oncology, “F. Miulli” General Regional Hospital, Acquaviva delle Fonti 70021, Bari, Italy
Alessia Surgo, Alba Fiorentino, Department of Radiation Oncology, “F. Miulli” General Regional Hospital, Acquaviva delle Fonti 70021, Bari, Italy
Stavros Spiliopoulos, Department of 2nd Radiology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 12461, Greece
Nicola de’Angelis, Unit of Minimally Invasive and Robotic Digestive Surgery, “F. Miulli” General Regional Hospital, Acquaviva delle Fonti 70021, Bari, Italy
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors are aware of the content of the manuscript and have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Riccardo Inchingolo, MD, Chief Doctor, Director, Department of Interventional Radiology Unit, “F. Miulli” General Regional Hospital, Strada Prov. 127 Acquaviva–Santeramo, Acquaviva delle Fonti 70021, Bari, Italy. riccardoin@hotmail.it
Received: January 24, 2021 Peer-review started: January 24, 2021 First decision: March 14, 2021 Revised: March 15, 2021 Accepted: April 13, 2021 Article in press: April 13, 2021 Published online: July 7, 2021 Processing time: 162 Days and 9.2 Hours
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted hospital organization, with the necessity to quickly react to face the pandemic. The management of the oncological patient has been modified by necessity due to different allocation of nurses and doctors, requiring new strategies to guarantee the correct assistance to the patients. Hepatocellular carcinoma, considered as one of the most aggressive types of liver cancer, has also required a different management during this period in order to optimize the management of patients at risk for and with this cancer. The aim of this document is to review recommendations on hepatocellular carcinoma surveillance and management, including surgery, liver transplantation, interventional radiology, oncology, and radiotherapy. Publications and guidelines from the main scientific societies worldwide regarding the management of hepatocellular carcinoma during the COVID-19 pandemic were reviewed.
Core Tip: Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most common cancers in the world. The aim of this review is to focus on the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on the management of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and to verify how multidisciplinary management has changed to face the necessity of hospital reorganization.
