Hepatocellular carcinoma: one world, one cancer—different guidelines?

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a healthcare challenge in virtually all parts of the world. Therefore, it is no wonder that different guidelines have been developed reflecting expert consensus on the management of HCC in different regions, namely guidelines from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) for the USA (1,2), the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) for the Asia-Pacific region (3), the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) for Europe (4), and the Japan Society of Hepatology (JSH) for Japan (5,6). In 2018 an update of the EASL clinical practice guidelines (CPG) will appear.