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Book and Media Reviews
Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Targeted Therapy and Multidisciplinary Care - Kelly M. McMasters and Jean-Nicolas Vauthey, editors
Oregon Health & Science University
J Gastrointest Oncol 2011; 2: 122. DOI: 10.3978/j.issn.2078-6891.2011.018
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This textbook takes a brave step in attempting to nail
down the many complexities arising in the treatment of
Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) today. This feared
cancer has a yearly mortality rate that matches its incidence
rate—most patients diagnosed with HCC will die within a
year, despite the many therapies currently available, as well
as an increasing awareness of risk factors for development
of the tumor. The number of chapters in the comprehensive
Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Targeted Therapy and
Multidisciplinary Care (twenty-four) attests to the
complexity of care brought to bear in patients with this
disease.
While being comprehensive, the editors have taken
care not to overwhelm the reader with unnecessary data,
though complete references allow the reader flexibility to
examine subjects more closely if desired. Though several
introductory chapters succinctly review the epidemiology,
biology and staging, the majority of the text (ten of twentyfour
chapters) is devoted to reviews of differing therapies
for HCC. Each of these chapters provides a rather indepth
view of the particular mode of therapy, and to some
extent the data showing efficacy and tolerability of the
treatment. There are two refreshing instances in this book
where differing perspectives of HCC therapy are presented
(European and American approaches to laparoscopic liver
resection, and Japanese versus Western approaches to the
HCC treatment algorithm).
The book purports to be of interest to healthcare professionals and trainees who are interested in the
diagnosis and treatment of HCC, and it lives up to this
claim. Because the management of HCC today must
involve many providers of diverse expertise, this text will
be helpful in educating those providers not routinely caring
for patients with HCC. In this regard Hepatocellular
Carcinoma: Targeted Therapy and Multidisciplinary
Care provides a valuable handbook for the practitioner to
consult when counseling patients.
This work does not address larger questions of how all of
these HCC therapies fit together. Clearly many groups that
treat this cancer do not have expertise or interest in all of the
listed therapies, so the question of how the described HCC
therapies fit into the multi-disciplinary picture is left largely
unanswered. This omission reflects the current state of HCC
therapy today: many available therapies, sometimes spotty
data on the efficacy of particular therapies, and difficulty
coordinating all of the different therapies and other care
required for the HCC patient. This puzzle is a difficult one
even for those expert in the field, and perhaps cannot be
answered definitively at this time. Readers will, however,
find Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Targeted Therapy and
Multidisciplinary Care a useful reference for currently
available algorithms and treatments that will prove useful in
understanding and providing the best care for patients with
HCC in the context of local resources.
Cite this article as:
Naugler W. Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Targeted Therapy and Multidisciplinary Care - Kelly M. McMasters and Jean-Nicolas Vauthey, editors. J Gastrointest Oncol. 2011;2(2):122. DOI:10.3978/j.issn.2078-6891.2011.018
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