{"entity":{"id":"hcc-surveillance","kind":"technology","name":"HCC surveillance in cirrhosis (ultrasound + AFP)","aka":[],"tldr":"People with cirrhosis or chronic hepatitis B get a liver ultrasound and a blood test every six months so cancer is caught while it is still curable.","summary":"Six-monthly ultrasound with or without AFP is recommended by AASLD, EASL and APASL; it detects HCC at an early stage in ~60-70% of adherent patients and is associated with better survival in cohort studies (no randomised trial outside China). Uptake is under 25% in many health systems. Abbreviated MRI, GALAD (gender, age, AFP-L3, AFP, DCP) and cfDNA methylation tests are being evaluated to improve sensitivity in obese and fatty-liver patients.","status":"standard-of-care","asOf":"2026-09-07","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatocellular_carcinoma","links":[{"label":"Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatocellular_carcinoma"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["hcc"],"sections":["early-detection"],"technologies":["ultrasound","mri","mced"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":["afp"],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"principle":"Risk-stratified imaging of a defined at-risk population (cirrhosis of any cause, HBV carriers) at an interval matched to tumour doubling time.","strengths":["Cheap, non-invasive","Stage shift toward curative options"],"limitations":["Ultrasound sensitivity falls in obesity and steatosis","Poor adherence and under-diagnosed cirrhosis (especially MASLD)"]},"route":"/technologies/hcc-surveillance/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"hcc-early","kind":"cancer","name":"Early hepatocellular carcinoma (BCLC 0 and A)","route":"/cancers/hcc-early/"},{"id":"hepatoblastoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Hepatoblastoma","route":"/cancers/hepatoblastoma/"},{"id":"hcc","kind":"cancer","name":"Hepatocellular carcinoma","route":"/cancers/hcc/"}],"section":[{"id":"early-detection","kind":"section","name":"Early Detection & Screening","route":"/fronts/early-detection/"}],"technology":[{"id":"coffee-intake-cancer","kind":"technology","name":"Coffee and tea intake","route":"/technologies/coffee-intake-cancer/"},{"id":"mri","kind":"technology","name":"MRI","route":"/technologies/mri/"},{"id":"mced","kind":"technology","name":"Multi-cancer early detection (MCED)","route":"/technologies/mced/"},{"id":"serum-tumour-markers","kind":"technology","name":"Serum tumour markers: proper use and misuse","route":"/technologies/serum-tumour-markers/"},{"id":"ultrasound","kind":"technology","name":"Ultrasound","route":"/technologies/ultrasound/"}],"term":[{"id":"afp","kind":"term","name":"Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)","route":"/terms/afp/"},{"id":"hbv-hcv","kind":"term","name":"Hepatitis B and C as cancer causes","route":"/terms/hbv-hcv/"}],"idea":[{"id":"idea-hcc-blood-surveillance","kind":"idea","name":"Blood-based HCC surveillance to replace six-monthly ultrasound","route":"/ideas/idea-hcc-blood-surveillance/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-early-detection","kind":"bottleneck","name":"The hardest cancers are found late","route":"/bottlenecks/b-early-detection/"}],"pathway":[{"id":"oncogenic-viruses","kind":"pathway","name":"Oncogenic viruses","route":"/pathways/oncogenic-viruses/"}],"roadmap":[{"id":"prevention-roadmap","kind":"roadmap","name":"Cancer prevention roadmap: tobacco control and vaccines → biomarker-guided chemoprevention → interception in carriers","route":"/roadmaps/prevention-roadmap/"}]}}