- Kim, Nicole;
- Rozenberg-Ben-Dror, Karine;
- Jacob, David;
- Rich, Nicole;
- Singal, Amit;
- Aby, Elizabeth;
- Yang, Ju;
- Nguyen, Veronica;
- Pillai, Anjana;
- Fuchs, Michael;
- Moon, Andrew;
- Shroff, Hersh;
- Agarwal, Parul;
- Perumalswami, Ponni;
- Chandna, Shaun;
- Zhou, Kali;
- Patel, Yuval;
- Latt, Nyan;
- Wong, Robert;
- Duarte-Rojo, Andres;
- Lindenmeyer, Christina;
- Frenette, Catherine;
- Ge, Jin;
- Mehta, Neil;
- Yao, Francis;
- Benhammou, Jihane;
- Bloom, Patricia;
- Leise, Michael;
- Kim, Hyun-Seok;
- Levy, Cynthia;
- Barnard, Abbey;
- Khalili, Mandana;
- Ioannou, George
BACKGROUND & AIMS: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) surveillance rates are suboptimal in clinical practice. We aimed to elicit providers opinions on the following aspects of HCC surveillance: preferred strategies, barriers and facilitators, and the impact of a patients HCC risk on the choice of surveillance modality. METHODS: We conducted a web-based survey among gastroenterology and hepatology providers (40% faculty physicians, 21% advanced practice providers, 39% fellow-trainees) from 26 US medical centers in 17 states. RESULTS: Of 654 eligible providers, 305 (47%) completed the survey. Nearly all (98.4%) of the providers endorsed semi-annual HCC surveillance in patients with cirrhosis, with 84.2% recommending ultrasound ± alpha fetoprotein (AFP) and 15.4% recommending computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Barriers to surveillance included limited HCC treatment options, screening test effectiveness to reduce mortality, access to transportation, and high out-of-pocket costs. Facilitators of surveillance included professional society guidelines. Most providers (72.1%) would perform surveillance even if HCC risk was low (≤0.5% per year), while 98.7% would perform surveillance if HCC risk was ≥1% per year. As a patients HCC risk increased from 1% to 3% to 5% per year, providers reported they would be less likely to order ultrasound ± AFP (83.6% to 68.9% to 57.4%; P < .001) and more likely to order CT or MRI ± AFP (3.9% to 26.2% to 36.1%; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Providers recommend HCC surveillance even when HCC risk is much lower than the threshold suggested by professional societies. Many appear receptive to risk-based HCC surveillance strategies that depend on patients estimated HCC risk, instead of our current one-size-fits all strategy.