Comparative Performances of Staging Systems for Hepatocellular Cancer: Early HCC Considerations

Establishing an accurate staging system for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is complicated by both liver- and tumour-specific factors, which should ideally be integrated into disease staging for accurate recommendations and prognosis. A number of staging systems for HCC have been proposed and compared over the last two decades. For patients with advanced HCC and those patients undergoing locoregional therapy, the CLIP staging system appears to perform well. In contrast, for patients with intermediate or advanced HCC who undergo resection, the American Joint Committee on Cancer/International Union Against Cancer (AJCC/UICC) is probably the most utilized and favoured staging system. Future staging systems must incorporate more accurate predictive factors for early HCC.