Modern strategies of staging and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma in cirrhosis

This review presents the evolution of HCC staging systems as the acquisition of new data about the features of its carcinogenesis. The main staging systems are considered: Tumor-Node-Metastasis (TNM), Okuda, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer system (BCLC), Cancer of the Liver Italian Program (CLIP), Hong Kong Liver Cancer (HKLC) and others, in terms of their predictive significance. The author comes to the conclusion that the variety of classifications of the HCC indicates a certain dissatisfaction of all interested specialists in existing systems. At the same time, the BCLC classification, being somewhat conservative, despite the 20-year history of its application, currently remains one of the most convenient tools in determining the optimal therapeutic tactics and prognosis of patients with HCC.