Quality of life changes after treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma Most primary liver cancers are classified as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which is also the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, responsible for about 600000 deaths annually. The incidence of HCC varies among different regions, which is particularly high in East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Besides, the incidence is more than twice as high in males as in females. According to the statistics from Ministry of Health and Welfare, HCC is the second leading cause of death among malignancy in Taiwan in 2014. Once diagnosed as HCC, further treatments include surgical resection, embolization, radiofrequency ablation (RFA), chemical ablation, chemotherapy and target therapy. As the overall prognosis in HCC is poor, quality of life after treatment should also be taken into consideration. It was not until 1990s that health-related quality of life (QoL) in cancer patients was emphasized. Previous studies pointed out that sex, age, stage of HCC and liver function are associated with QoL of HCC patients. Overall, QoL tends to worsen as TNM stage progresses. A QoL study conducted in Italy concluded that, at 24 months after treatment, radiofrequency ablation was associated with worse QoL compared to hepatic resection, but better QoL compared to transarterial chemoembolization or no treatment in HCC patients. However, no previous study investigated the treatment experience in Asia HCC patients. How will these treatments affect one’s QoL? In May 2015, Professor Chie from Department of Public Health, National Taiwan University and Mengqian Li from Department of Biostatistics, University of Nebraska Medical Center published their study on the QoL following different treatments in Asia HCC patients, in Quality of Life. The research team utilized QLQ-C30 and QLQ-HCC18 questionnaires to compare QoL following embolization, radiofrequency ablation and surgical resection. After adjusting for confounding factors, including age, sex, race, employment, living with family, comorbidity, stage of HCC, liver function and QoL score before treatment, patients tended to have higher odds of QoL deterioration when treated with radiofrequency ablation compared with embolization and surgery. This study provided the quality of life changes after different HCC treatments, which is of value for patients while choosing the treatment to receive. Reference Wei-Chu Chie, Fang Yu, Mengqian Li, Lorena Baccaglini, Jane M. Blazeby, Chin-Fu Hsiao, Herng- Chia Chiu, Ronnie T. Poon, Naoko Mikoshiba, Gillian Al-Kadhimi, Nigel Heaton, Jozer Calara, Peter Collins, Katharine Caddick, Anna Costantini, Valerie Vilgrain, Chieh Chiang, Qual Life Res. 2015 Oct.; 24(10):2499-506. DOI:10.1007/s11136-015-0985-8. Professor Wei-Chu Chie Graduate Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Department of Public Health, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan weichu@ntu.edu.tw