Screening for Liver Cancer: The Rush to Judgment

Frank A. Lederle, Christine Pocha

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

79 Scopus citations

Abstract

In 2005, a professional society issued a level I recommendation to use ultrasonography to screen the 3 million Americans with cirrhosis for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) every 6 months. This designation was based on a large randomized trial from China that reported a reduction in HCC deaths from screening in carriers of hepatitis B surface antigen. However, besides the difference in population, this trial did not report all deaths, excluded patients after randomization, and would almost certainly have found no significant difference if the cluster randomization had been accounted for in the analysis. Misplaced confidence in the Chinese trial has led many writers to accept the effectiveness of HCC screening as proven, making it more difficult to conduct the highquality randomized trials that are needed to ensure optimal patient care.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)387-389
Number of pages3
JournalAnnals of internal medicine
Volume156
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 6 2012

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