Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major health problem, and is now the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. This tumor has the fastest growing incidence among cancers in the US, where ~20,000 new cases are diagnosed yearly. The Mount Sinai Hospital has emerged as an international leader in clinical and translational research in HCC.

Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM) and The Mount Sinai Medical Center (MSMC) have been at the forefront of clinical management of HCC in the United States, thanks in large part to the unique talents of our Liver Transplant and Surgery Unit headed by Myron Schwartz, MD, along with members of the Divisions of Oncology and Liver Diseases, Pathology, and Radiology. Our institution ranked first in regional inpatient market share for HCC in 2003. The Mount Sinai Hospital is the leading center in the United States in terms of number of new HCC patients evaluated annually, around 400 in 2008. 

This program earned its international reputation in large measure as a consequence of the clinical contributions made in the surgical management of HCC.  Parallel to these efforts, Josep Llovet, MD, a well-known international expert on HCC came from a leading center of clinical research in Europe to Mount Sinai to study the molecular basis of this tumor, joining a group led by Scott Friedman, MD. 

The creation of the Mount Sinai Liver Cancer Program in April 2005 resulted from two key developments:

1. A well established clinical program, directed by Myron Schwartz, MD, as described above, who was appointed as Clinical Director.
2. The creation of a translational program following the recruitment of Josep Llovet, MD, as faculty in the Department of Medicine, Division of Liver Diseases, to lead the program as Research Director.

The HCC program is structured as a multidisciplinary group including hepatologists, surgeons, oncologists, pathologists, radiologists and molecular biologists.

The main objective of the Program is to maintain Mount Sinai at the forefront of HCC clinical and translational research in the US.