Screening for hepatocellular carcinoma: patient selection and perspectives

Fateen, Waleed; Ryder, Stephen

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) develops on the background of liver cirrhosis often from multiple, simultaneous factors. The diagnosis of a single small HCC comes with good prognosis and provides a potential for cure. In contrast, the diagnosis of multifocal, large HCC has high mortality and poor prognosis. Unfortunately, the majority of HCC is diagnosed at such late stages. A surveillance program endorsed by regional liver societies involves six-monthly ultrasound surveillance of at-risk patients. This had been in action for the last two decades. It has led to marked increase in the proportion of patients presenting with small unifocal nodules found on surveillance. The development of tools to enhance our ability in optimizing available surveillance is likely to improve the prognosis of patients with HCC. In this review, we discuss the difficulties in utilizing HCC surveillance and possible means of improvement.

Citation

Fateen, W., & Ryder, S. (2017). Screening for hepatocellular carcinoma: patient selection and perspectives. Journal of Hepatocellular Carcinoma, 2017(4), https://doi.org/10.2147/JHC.S105777

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 17, 2017
• Publication Date: May 17, 2017
• Deposit Date: Feb 19, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 19, 2018
• Journal: Journal of Hepatocellular Carcinoma
• Electronic ISSN: 2253-5969
• Publisher: Dove Medical Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2017
• Issue: 4
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.2147/JHC.S105777
• Keywords: hepatocellular carcinoma, surveillance, screening, risk stratification
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/861062
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.2147/JHC.S105777