Hepatocellular Carcinoma Surveillance: Benefit of Serum Alfa-fetoprotein in Real-world Practice

INTRODUCTION: Better treatment outcome of early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) warrants employment of screening programs, in which ultrasonography (US) and serum alfa-fetoprotein (AFP) have been recommended. Considering cost-effectiveness, serum AFP has recently been withdrawn from several guidelines for HCC surveillance. However, there were limited studies on benefits of AFP for HCC surveillance in Thailand. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective study of a proportion of HCC cases in which a diagnostic study was triggered by high serum AFP levels, but US failed to detect the lesion. Patients who received diagnostic imaging for HCC at Siriraj Hospital between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2014 were included. All the patients must fulfill criteria for HCC surveillance according to American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) practice guidelines on the management of HCC 2010 or European Association for the Study of the Liver-European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EASL-EORTC) Clinical Practice Guidelines: Management of HCC 2012. Previous diagnosis of any liver malignancy was excluded. Demographic data, underlying liver diseases, screening of AFP and US results, and definite diagnosis of HCC were recorded. RESULTS: Of the 452 cases who fulfilled inclusion and exclusion criteria, chronic hepatitis B, C, and alcoholic cirrhosis were accountable for 53.8, 25.9, and 7.3% respectively. Totally, 150 cases were diagnosed with HCC. Additional HCC detection rate by high serum AFP but failed US of 15.3% was demonstrated. Subgroup analysis revealed significant benefit of AFP in cirrhotic patients with chronic hepatitis B and C (p-value 0.004 and 0.002). No significant benefit was observed in cirrhosis of other causes and in noncirrhotic chronic hepatitis B. CONCLUSION: We reported a 15.3% additional benefit of serum AFP for HCC surveillance in conjunction with US of liver. Chronic hepatitis B and C with cirrhosis significantly derived the benefit from serum AFP screening. How to cite this article: Lersritwimanmaen P, Nimanong S. Hepatocellular Carcinoma Surveillance: Benefit of Serum Alfa-fetoprotein in Real-world Practice. Euroasian J Hepato-Gastroenterol 2018;8(1):83-87.