Dr. Singal on the Results of a Mailed Outreach Strategy for Surveillance Utilization in HCC

Amit Singal, MD, medical director, Liver Tumor Program, clinical chief, Hepatology, professor of internal medicine, Dedman Family Scholar in Clinical Care, Willis C. Maddrey, MD, Distinguished Chair in Liver Disease, UT Southwestern Medical Center, discusses the results of a study evaluating the utilization of a mailed surveillance outreach program in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

During the ILCA 2021 Annual Conference, findings from a pragmatic randomized clinical trial evaluating mailed outreach for screening ultrasound vs usual care with visit-based screening in patients with cirrhosis were presented. The results demonstrated that the mailed outreach strategy resulted in higher rates of proportion time covered, higher semi-annual surveillance, and lower no-surveillance compared with usual care, Singal says.

Although these data were expected based on preliminary data, subgroup analyses yielded surprising findings, Singal explains. The results showed that the mailed outreach approach was equally effective across most subgroups, including race and ethnicity, Child-Pugh score, receipt of prior hepatology care, or receipt of prior HCC surveillance in the year before randomization, Singal says. However, a difference was observed between health systems, Singal concludes.

Dr. Singal was interviewed by OncLive® during the ILCA 2021 Annual Conference.