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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Jul 27, 2018; 10(7): 452-461
Published online Jul 27, 2018. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v10.i7.452
Contemporary role of liver biopsy in hepatocellular carcinoma
Zeno Sparchez, Tudor Mocan
Zeno Sparchez, Tudor Mocan, 3rd Medical Department, Institute for Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca 400162, Romania
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: No potential conflicts of interest. No financial support.
Open-Access: 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/
Correspondence to: Tudor Mocan, MD, Associate Specialist, Doctor, 3rd Medical Department, Institute for Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Croitorilor st. 19-21, Cluj-Napoca 400162, Romania. mocan_tudor@yahoo.com
Telephone: +4-799-861946
Received: March 29, 2018
Peer-review started: March 29, 2018
First decision: May 9, 2018
Revised: May 29, 2018
Accepted: June 26, 2018
Article in press: June 27, 2018
Published online: July 27, 2018
Core Tip

Core tip: We now face a time when oncology is moving towards personalized medicine. The development of high-throughput molecular technologies has allowed us to define the main molecular mechanism involved in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development and progression. Several subtypes of HCC have been described using both molecular and histological characterization. In the context of histological HCC sub-classes, each with distinct molecular patterns and prognostic impacts, the need for liver biopsy in HCC management becomes a necessity. In this era of personalized medicine, knowing the strengths of each sampling technique is of the utmost importance.