Xu K, et al. - Using the 2004-2013 Commission on Cancer’s National Cancer Database, researchers examined how surgical delay influences survival in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients who underwent local tumor destruction and hepatic resection for stage I-III HCC. The definition of surgical delay was >60 days from the date of diagnosis to surgery. Better 5-year survival for local tumor destruction and resection was reported among cases with surgical delay. In risk-adjusted model, 8% decreased risk of death was suggested in delayed patients. Possibly, case prioritization could explain this observation, in which earlier surgery was opted for patients with more severe and advanced disease and a higher risk of death, while patients with less aggressive tumors were operated on later and received more comprehensive pre-operative evaluation.