The treatment options are dictated by the stage of HCC and the overall condition of the patient. The only proven cure for HCC is liver transplantation for a solitary,small(<3cm) tumor. Now, many physicians may dispute this statement. They may argue that a small tumor can be surgically removed (partial hepatic resection) without the need for a liver transplantation. Moreover, they may claim that the one and three year survival rates for resection are perhaps comparable to those for liver transplantation.

The doubling time for a cancer is the time it takes for the tumor to double in size. For liver cancer, the doubling time is quite variable, ranging from one month to eighteen months. This kind of variability tells us that every patient with HCC is unique. Therefore, an assessment of the natural history and the evaluation of different treatments are very difficult. Nevertheless, in patients with a solitary HCC that is less than 3 cm, with no treatment, we can expect that 90% of the patients will survive (live) for one year, 50% for three years, and 20% for five years