In 2017, the World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery (WJGS) has published the 12^nd issue which containing 7 articles contributed by scientists worldwide. Among these comprehensive articles are (1) “Advances and challenges in laparoscopic surgery in the management of hepatocellular carcinoma”, a Review by Georgios Tsoulfas, MD, PhD, et al from the 1^st Department of Surgery, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece; (2) “Hepatocellular carcinoma with child Pugh-A Cirrhosis treated with stereotactic body radiotherapy”, an Original Article by Dr. Shaakir Hasan, et al from the Division of Radiation Oncology, Allegheny General Hospital Cancer Institute, United States, etc. We invite you to peruse all 7 articles in this issue, as they present the latest research progress/findings and provide insightful comments in gastrointestinal surgery that will guide basic research and clinical practice in these fields.

This journal is an open-access journal which allows free immediate access to all full-text articles. For details, please visit: Volume 9, Issue 12, December 27, 2017.

Figure 1 The cover of the issue. Editorial Board Member of World Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Jean-Francois Gigot, MD, Professor, Department of Abdominal Surgery and Transplantation, Saint-Luc University Hospital, Brussels 101200, Belgium

The WJGS is a leading academic journal devoted to reporting the latest, cutting-edge research progress and findings of basic research and clinical practice in the field of gastrointestinal surgery. It was launched on November 30, 2009 and is published monthly (12 issues annually) by BPG, the world's leading professional clinical medical journal publishing company.

We encourage surgical specialists worldwide to submit manuscripts to the WJGS describing their original basic or clinical research findings that are of high academic value and which report new diagnostic techniques or summarize their treatment experiences.

We invited the readers to download and read the E-Journal of this issue.