Bencini L. Novel prognostic factors after radical resection of hepatocellular carcinoma: Updating an old issue. World J Gastrointest Surg 2024; 16(1): 1-5 [PMID: 38328325 DOI: 10.4240/wjgs.v16.i1.1]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Lapo Bencini, PhD, Doctor, Senior Researcher, Surgeon, Department of Oncology and Robotic Surgery, Careggi Main Florence University and Regional Hospital, Largo Brambilla 3, Florence 50134, Italy. bencinil@aou-careggi.toscana.it
Research Domain of This Article
Surgery
Article-Type of This Article
Editorial
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/
World J Gastrointest Surg. Jan 27, 2024; 16(1): 1-5 Published online Jan 27, 2024. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v16.i1.1
Novel prognostic factors after radical resection of hepatocellular carcinoma: Updating an old issue
Lapo Bencini
Lapo Bencini, Department of Oncology and Robotic Surgery, Careggi Main Florence University and Regional Hospital, Florence 50134, Italy
Author contributions: Bencini L ideated and completed the whole manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Lapo Bencini has nothing to disclose.
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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Lapo Bencini, PhD, Doctor, Senior Researcher, Surgeon, Department of Oncology and Robotic Surgery, Careggi Main Florence University and Regional Hospital, Largo Brambilla 3, Florence 50134, Italy. bencinil@aou-careggi.toscana.it
Received: October 29, 2023 Peer-review started: October 29, 2023 First decision: December 12, 2023 Revised: December 12, 2023 Accepted: January 8, 2024 Article in press: January 8, 2024 Published online: January 27, 2024
Abstract
In this editorial, I comment on the article by Li et al published in the recent issue of the World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery in 2023, investigating the role of some novel prognostic factors for early survival after radical resection of liver cancer. Liver cancer is an important burden among Asian and Western populations, despite recent advances in both medicine (from virus eradication to systemic target therapies) and surgery. However, survival after proven radical surgery remains poor, with recurrences being the rule. Many prognostic scores have been developed and validated to select those patients who will best benefit from radical liver surgery, although the final general and oncological outcomes continue to be highly jeopardized. Unfortunately, no single biomarker can resolve all these issues for hepatocellular carcinoma, and it remains to be proven whether some of them maintain predictive power in the long-term follow-up. In the ongoing era of “precision” medicine, the novel prognostic markers, including immune inflammatory and nutritional indexes could be of great help in better stratify surgical candidates.
Core Tip: Survival after radical surgery for liver cancer remain poor, with important perioperative complications and many organ recurrences. Prognostic scores have been developed and validated to select those patients who will best benefit from radical liver surgery, although the final general and oncological outcomes continue to be highly jeopardized. Some novel prognostic markers, including immune inflammatory and nutritional indexes could be of great help in better stratify surgical candidates.
