Regional Differences in Hepatocellular Carcinoma and its Surgical Treatment

liver such as schistosomiasis and clonorchiasis may be associated with HCC but the evidence here seems less strong. PATHOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORYIt is often stated that small and encapsulated tumours are common in the East but rare in the West25.When present encapsulation seems to be a favourable prognostic sign 26-28 and this has been used by some to explain the better surgical results from Japan.However, the evidence is misleading.Most Western series are of surgically treated cases and depending on local referral practice a large number of patients may have been excluded.In addition there is no universally accepted definition of 4685,