Very early in my career I told a senior colleague that I was interested in trying to treat patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). “Oh, that is easy,” he replied, “Give them a bottle of whiskey and send them home!” In those days HCC was seldom even diagnosed during life let alone treated. Gut readers, many of whom will have been brought up on single authored textbooks of gastroenterology, may be dismayed to find that treatment and diagnosis of HCC can now fill an entire book of more than 400 pages. That this task requires more than 60 authors will compound their dismay. Indeed, it is probably the size of the book that tells the main story. There is no consensus on how best to diagnose, screen for, or treat this tumour, with the result …