HCC screening and surveillance

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide (1-5). The majority of cases with HCC have a chronic liver disease in the background liver, especially chronic hepatitis because of a hepatitis C virus (HCV) or hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection (6, 7). Thus, at least some of the high-risk patients for HCC can be readily demarcated. Indeed, regular HCC surveillance is commonly performed as part of standard clinical practice for chronic viral hepatitis patients (8).