Hepatocellular carcinoma: is surveillance cost effective?

In whom, how and how often is surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma cost-effective?

BACKGROUND Despite well known worldwide differences in hepatocellular carcinoma incidence, which reflect different risk profiles, current recommendation of surveillance with ultrasound and alpha-fetoprotein twice-a-year has been restricted to cirrhotic patients. To evaluate the generalizability of this recommendation, we reviewed the clinical charts of hepatocellular carcinoma cases in a Mexica...

Surveillance of hepatocellular carcinoma: is only ultrasound enough?

Early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is very important because the 5-year survival rate of early stage HCC (about 40% to 70%) is better than that of advanced stage HCC (less than 5%). In some countries, high-risk patients undergo a hepatocarcinoma surveillance program using ultrasound and serum alphafetoprotein (AFP) levels. However, there are several drawbacks of surveillance prog...

Is routine duplex ultrasound surveillance after carotid endarterectomy cost-effective?

BACKGROUND Although duplex ultrasound surveillance of patients after carotid endarterectomy (CEA) is routinely performed, the use of this policy has been questioned. We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of this strategy. METHODS Using a decision-analytic Markov model that depicts the natural history of patients after CEA, we compared a strategy of duplex ultrasound surveillance to a strategy o...

Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Sheep

Apatinib is effective for treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma

As treatment options for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are currently limited, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of oral apatinib, a VEGFR-2 inhibitor, on patients with advanced HCC. Twenty-two patients from Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital were enrolled for evaluation. Apatinib was administered at 500 mg/day or 250 mg/day continuously. Clinical endpoints were time to...