Impact of Screening on Mortality for Patients Diagnosed with Hepatocellular Carcinoma in a Safety-Net Healthcare System: An Opportunity for Addressing Disparities

We describe the impact of screening on outcomes of patients diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in an urban safety-net healthcare system compared to a non-screened cohort diagnosed with HCC. Patients diagnosed with HCC at John Peter Smith Health Network were identified by querying the hospital tumor registry and allocated to the screened cohort if they had undergone any liver imaging within one year prior to HCC diagnosis, while the remainder were allocated to the non-screened cohort. Kaplan-Meier methods and log-rank tests were used to compare 3-year survival curves from an index date of HCC diagnosis. Cox proportional hazard models were used to calculate unadjusted and adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The Duffy adjustment was used to address lead-time bias. A total of 158 patients were included (n = 53 screened, n = 105 non-screened). The median overall survival (OS) for the screened cohort was 19.0 months (95% CI: 9.9-NA) and that for the non-screened cohort was 5.4 months (95% CI: 3.7-8.5) [HR death (non-screened vs. screened) = 2.4, 95% CI: 1.6-3.6; log rank < 0.0001]. The benefit of screening remained after adjusting for lead-time bias (HR 2.19, 95% CI 1.4-3.3, = 0.0002). In an urban safety-net population, screening for HCC was associated with improved outcomes compared to patients diagnosed with HCC outside of a screening protocol.