Blood markers could transform liver cancer surveillance

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * The patient is male or female patients, 21 to 90 years of age at the time of signature of the informed consent form. * The patient has clinically AND histologically proven HCC. * The patient has R0 or R1 resection on histology. * The patient has Child-Pugh \<= 7 points without clinical ascites before surgery. * The patient has ECOG performance status 0-1 before surgery. * The patient is scheduled for liver resection within 6 weeks of signing screening informed consent form. * The patient has received no anti-cancer specific treatment for HCC before the surgery (eg. previous liver resection, loco-regional therapy such as RFA, TACE, SIRT, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, chemotherapy or neo-adjuvant chemotherapy), other than the planned surgery. However, patient who has received previous HCC treatment more than 5 years ago is deemed to have a de-novo liver tumour and therefore can be included. * The patient is able to comply with scheduled visits, assessments and other study procedures. * The patient is willing to provide informed consent before enrolment in the study. Exclusion Criteria: * The patient has previous or concomitant malignancies at other sites, except effectively treated non-melanoma skin cancers or carcinoma in situ of the cervix or effectively treated malignancy that has been in remission for over 5 years and highly likely to have been cured. * The patient has active hepatic encephalopathy at time of enrolment. * The patient has received a major organ allograft. * The patient is known to be positive for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). * The patient has an uncontrolled bleeding disorder. * The patient has uncontrolled congestive heart failure or hypertension, unstable heart disease (coronary artery disease or myocardial infarction) or uncontrolled arrhythmia at the time of enrolment. * The patient has psychiatric or addictive disorders that may compromise his/her ability to give informed consent, or to comply with the study procedures. * The patient has other concurrent severe medical problems, unrelated to the malignancy, that would significantly limit full compliance with the study or expose the patient to unacceptable risk. * The patient has received any investigational or non-registered medicinal product (drug or vaccine) within the 30 days preceding the date of enrolment. * For female patients: the patient is pregnant or lactating. * The patient is unable to provide informed consent or refuse blood taking. * The patient has any other condition which, in the opinion of the Investigators, would make the patient unsuitable for enrolment or could interfere with completion of the study.