Decision making in elderly HCC

Background The decision making process in hepato-cellular carcinoma (HCC) relies on multiple factors. Hepatic surgery, in fact, has to take into consideration a patient’s general medical condition, performance status, underlying liver disease, functional hepatic reserve. All these factors affect hepatic metabolism, flux and regeneration mechanism conditioning future liver remnant volume. What is more, hepatic regeneration is delayed, even if not completely impaired, in the elderly. Nevertheless age is not always properly taken into account.