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Editorial
Diagnostic efficacy of ultrasound in hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosis
Kwong-Ming Kee & Sheng-Nan Lu
Pages 277-279 | Received 02 Sep 2016, Accepted 03 Feb 2017, Accepted author version posted online: 06 Feb 2017, Published online: 15 Feb 2017
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17474124.2017.1292126
1. Introduction
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer-related death. Surviving HCC is mainly influenced by the stages of disease at the time of diagnosis [1 European Association for the Study of the Liver, European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer. EASL-EORTC clinical practice guidelines: management of hepatocellular carcinoma. J Hepatol. 2012;56(4):908–943.[CrossRef], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar],2 Bruix J, Sherman M. Management of hepatocellular carcinoma: an update. Hepatology. 2011;53(3):1020–1022.[CrossRef], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]]. Ultrasound (US) is a simple, noninvasive tool with no risk of radiation exposure. The advantages of US include being inexpensive, safe, and having high accessibility. Conventional US is usually used as the first choice for the surveillance of HCC. The development of contrast-enhanced US (CEUS) has promise in increasing the diagnostic accuracy of HCC. Based on current evidence, the authors review the diagnostic efficacy of US in HCC diagnosis.
2. The role of US in HCC surveillance
US has been used as the standard of care in high-risk groups for HCC surveillance every 6 months [1 European Association for the Study of the Liver, European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer. EASL-EORTC clinical practice guidelines: management of hepatocellular carcinoma. J Hepatol. 2012;56(4):908–943.[CrossRef], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar],2 Bruix J, Sherman M. Management of hepatocellular carcinoma: an update. Hepatology. 2011;53(3):1020–1022.[CrossRef], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]]. The major risk factors for HCC include chronic viral hepatitis B and C infection, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, and liver cirrhosis. Some limitations could influence the sensitivity of US, such as quality of the US machine and experience of the operator, coarseness of liver parenchyma due to underlying cirrhosis, severe fatty liver background, and lesions located at the subdiaphragmatic area. A systematic review showed that the accuracy of US to detect HCC for patients with chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis with pooled sensitivity and specificity was 60% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 44–76) and 97% (95% CI: 95–98), respectively [3 Colli A, Fraquelli M, Casazza G. et al. Accuracy of ultrasonography, spiral CT, magnetic resonance, and alpha-fetoprotein in diagnosing hepatocellular carcinoma: a systematic review. Am J Gastroenterol. 2006;101(3):513–523.[CrossRef], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]]. Another meta-analysis demonstrated that pooled sensitivity and specificity of US for cirrhotic patients was 94% and 94%, respectively. However, the sensitivity decreases to 63% for early-stage HCC [4 Singal A, Volk ML, Waljee A. et al. Meta-analysis: surveillance with ultrasound for early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with cirrhosis. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2009;30(1):37–47.[CrossRef], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]].
The combination of US and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) as surveillance modality increases the detection rate of HCC and has been widely used as a surveillance guideline in Asia-Pacific countries. The sensitivity of HCC detection has been increased to 90–99% with acceptable decreasing specificity [5 Chang TS, Wu YC, Tung SY. et al. Alpha-fetoprotein measurement benefits hepatocellular carcinoma surveillance in patients with cirrhosis. Am J Gastroenterol. 2015;110(6):836–844. quiz 845.[CrossRef], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]]. AFP for HCC surveillance is not recommended by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) and the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) practice guidelines [1 European Association for the Study of the Liver, European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer. EASL-EORTC clinical practice guidelines: management of hepatocellular carcinoma. J Hepatol. 2012;56(4):908–943., 2 Bruix J, Sherman M. Management of hepatocellular carcinoma: an update. Hepatology. 2011;53(3):1020–1022.[CrossRef], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]]. The drop of AFP from the AASLD and EASL recommendations for HCC was the consequence of both suboptimal accuracy and a lack of standardized policy to treat AFP-positive patients lacking US detection of a nodule. In fact, the increasing AFP levels might signal the risk of developing HCC clinically. For patients with regular surveillance, HCC survival has significantly improved due to increased detection rates of early-stage HCC and treatments.
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