EASL Clinical Practice Guidelines on the management of hepatocellular carcinoma
- Study type
- Clinical guideline
- Study name
- EASL HCC 2025
- Design
- Clinical guideline of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (update of the 2018 guideline)
- Source
- J Hepatol · 2025
In plain words
This guideline was prepared by the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) for doctors and explains how liver cancer should be screened for, diagnosed and treated based on the latest evidence. Its main messages are: screening matched to each person's level of risk, use of standard imaging methods, and treatment decisions made in a multidisciplinary team taking the patient's own wishes into account.
Key guideline recommendations
- Not graded (taken from the abstract)
HCC screening should be personalised, based on individual risk assessment, and make use of new tools.
- Not graded (taken from the abstract)
Liver imaging methods and diagnostic criteria for HCC should be standardised.
- Not graded (taken from the abstract)
Minimally invasive surgery can be used in complex cases, and liver transplantation has an integral role in the treatment strategy.
- Not graded (taken from the abstract)
Combination immunotherapies have a place at different stages of disease, and the transition between surgical, locoregional and systemic treatments should be planned; radiotherapy also has a defined role.
- Not graded (taken from the abstract)
The treatment decision for each patient requires a multiparametric assessment of individual risks and benefits, taking the patient's perspective into account, in a multidisciplinary team.
Study population
Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and people at risk of it; from screening and diagnosis to surgical, locoregional, radiotherapy and systemic treatments.
Clinical significance and place in guidelines
This guideline replaces the EASL 2018 guideline and is the main European reference for managing HCC. According to the abstract, the main changes include risk-based screening, standardisation of imaging, a wider role for minimally invasive surgery and transplantation, and the place of combination immunotherapy at different stages of disease. (Detailed recommendations with level of evidence and strength of recommendation are in the full text.)
Limitations
The recommendations on this card were taken only from the published abstract, because the full text was not available to us; the level of evidence (LoE) and strength of each recommendation should be taken from the full text of the guideline. Some recommendations (such as adjuvant therapy) may need revision in light of data published after the guideline, including the updated IMbrave050 analysis.
This summary was prepared by the editorial team from the published paper; the original paper is the final reference. Read the original abstract on PubMed.