Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most important malignancies in the world and is the 3rd most important cause of cancer deaths. While surgical resection continues to confer the best consistent long-term survival, less than 20% of patients with HCC are amendable to surgical resection at the time of diagnosis. Until recently the prognosis of inoperable HCC was poor and HCC has one of the worse medians of survival among solid cancers. The incidence of HCC worldwide is, however, expected to increase in the new millennium.

Developments in both minimally invasive ablative therapy as well as molecular targeted therapy over the last decade have significantly changed the therapeutic landscape in HCC and conferred better survival and improved quality of life to patients with HCC. These developments together with an increased understanding of the complex molecular basis of the disease are currently rewriting the paradigm and changing the often fatalistic outlook towards the disease.

We invite investigators to contribute original research articles as well as review articles that describe this currently evolving paradigm and the potential directions of future therapies. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• The evolving epidemiology of HCC
• Developments in the more accurate early diagnosis of HCC
• Primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of HCC
• Improved outcomes with surgical resection and other ablative therapies in HCC
• New insights into the molecular basis of HCC
• Novel biomarkers in HCC
• Outcomes of novel therapeutics in HCC
• The direction of future therapeutics

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijhep/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: