The great efforts of recent years to establish monitoring and diagnostic criteria have become increasingly effective in defi ning hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as a clinical entity. These efforts are amply justifi ed by the increased frequency of diagnosis. Establishment of early diagnosis policies for causal entities and the increasingly evident benefi ts of treating the disease early have made even the possibility of eradicating the disease increasingly feasible. Monitoring and diagnostic tools have changed so much over time that new tools continuously appear with better performance leading other recent tools to fall into disuse.