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The American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) does not recommend the use of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) as a screening modality for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) due to its poor sensitivity and specificity (60% and 80%, respectively, using a typical AFP cutoff of 20 ng/mL).
In this retrospective case-control study, investigators evaluated whether AFP level can accurately predict HCC in subpopulations of patients with cirrhosis. Cases included all patients diagnosed with HCC at one hospital between 2005 and 2012. Controls included patients with cirrhosis without HCC seen at the same hospital between 2010 and 2011. Researchers performed multivariate analysis to identify factors associated with improved accuracy of AFP and a rec…