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Quality of Cancer Care in Patients with Cirrhosis and Hepatocellular Carcinoma

  • Liver (B Bacon, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common primary liver cancer in patients with cirrhosis and is the leading cause of mortality in these patients. Despite existence of robust clinical practice guidelines for surveillance, diagnosis, and management for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the quality of care received by patients with HCC has been inconsistent. Several studies have reported disappointingly low surveillance rates in high-risk groups which likely contribute to most HCC cases being diagnosed at advanced stages. There is also data from large studies showing that significant under-referral to specialists and delay in initiation of treatment are linked to poor clinical outcomes. Given above circumstances, it is very important to perform studies which can identify areas in need of improvement in the care processes of HCC and design interventions to enhance quality of care. Unfortunately, data on validated quality indicators and quality metrics for HCC are non-existent. In this article, we review the existing literature pertaining to this issue and identify areas that need further research.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street Southwest, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA

    Renumathy Dhanasekaran & Jayant A. Talwalkar

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  1. Renumathy Dhanasekaran
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  2. Jayant A. Talwalkar
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Correspondence to Renumathy Dhanasekaran.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Liver

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Dhanasekaran, R., Talwalkar, J.A. Quality of Cancer Care in Patients with Cirrhosis and Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Curr Gastroenterol Rep 17, 34 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11894-015-0459-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11894-015-0459-8

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