Hepatology has come of age in the last decades. Biology of the liver has flour ished long before. As the largest homogeneous organ of the body the liver served as useful model in the development of biochemistry and related discip lines. Only gradually were these biological investigations applied to the clinical study of liver disease. This was particularly stimulated by the recognition that in the greater part of the world, the developing countries and what we now call the Third World, liver disease represents a major threat to overall public health. It leads to morbidity and mortality of...

This volume comprises a series of original articles, updates and reviews on relevant topics in hepatology which were presented at a meeting in Freiburg im Breisgau to honour the 60th anniversary of Dr. Herbert Falk. Since 1967, Dr. Falk and the Falk Foundation have generously sponsored more than 40 congresses and symposia on liver diseases, held mostly in Freiburg, The Black Forest or in Basel, which have become milestones in the ex- change of scientific information in hepatology (see 'To Herbert Falk on his Sixtieth Birthday' in this volume). Many of these congresses and symposia have been...

Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most common fatal malignan cies of mankind. Up to a few decades ago it was looked upon as a cancer which aroused mainly academic concern but relatively little clinical interest, because its therapy and prognosis had a most un favorable outlook. Indeed, it was mostly recognized only at autopsy. Recently this pessimism has radically changed and is disappearing to a rapidly accelerating degree. Many of the scientific contributions at this change in outlook are the result of research in the Far East, first, Japan and then gradually extending to its...