Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Sep 15, 2015; 7(9): 161-171
Published online Sep 15, 2015. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v7.i9.161
Screening for hepatocellular carcinoma by Egyptian physicians
Sahar M Hassany, Ehab F Abdou Moustafa, Mohamed El Taher, Afaf Adel Abdeltwab, Hubert E Blum
Sahar M Hassany, Ehab F Abdou Moustafa, Mohamed El Taher, Department of Tropical Medicine and Gastroenterology, Assiut University, Assiut 71526, Egypt
Afaf Adel Abdeltwab, Assiut Hospital for Febrile Illnesses, Assiut 71526, Egypt
Hubert E Blum, Department of Internal Medicine II, Freiburg University, 79115 Freiburg, Germany
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: Assiut Faculity of Medicine review Board, Assiut University, Egypt.
Informed consent statement: Verbal consent were taken from all physicians included in the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at Dryad repository, who will provide a permanent, citable and open-access home for the dataset.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Sahar M Hassany, Lecturer of Tropical Medicine and Gastroenterology, Department of Tropical Medicine and Gastroenterology, Assiut University, Assiut University Street, Assiut 71526, Egypt. saharhassany@yahoo.com
Telephone: +20-11-174747 Fax: +20-88-2333327
Received: February 7, 2015
Peer-review started: February 13, 2015
First decision: April 28, 2015
Revised: August 5, 2015
Accepted: August 20, 2015
Article in press: August 21, 2015
Published online: September 15, 2015
Processing time: 220 Days and 12.2 Hours
Abstract

AIM: To assess the practice of Egyptian physicians in screening patients for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

METHODS: The study included 154 physicians from all over Egypt caring for patients at risk for HCC. The study was based on a questionnaire with 20 items. Each questionnaire consisted of two parts: (1) personal information regarding the physician (name, age, specialty and type of health care setting); and (2) professional experience in the care of patients at risk for HCC development (screening, knowledge about the cause and natural course of liver diseases and HCC risk).

RESULTS: Sixty-eight percent of doctors with an MD degree, 48% of doctors with a master degree or a diploma and 40% of doctors with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery certificate considered the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype as risk factor for HCC development (P < 0.05). Ninety percent of physicians specialized in tropical medicine, internal medicine or gastroenterology and 67% of physicians in other specialties advise patients to undergo screening for HCV and hepatitis B virus infection as well as liver cirrhosis (P < 0.05). Eighty-six percent of doctors in University Hospitals and 69% of Ministry of Health (MOH) doctors consider HCV infection as the leading cause of HCC in Egypt (P < 0.05). Seventy-two percent of doctors with an MD degree, 55% of doctors with a master degree or a diploma, 56% of doctors with an MBBCH certificate, 74% of doctors in University Hospitals and 46% of MOH hospital doctors consider abdominal ultrasonography as the most important investigation in HCC screening (P < 0.05). Sixty-five percent of physicians in tropical medicine, internal medicine or gastroenterology and 37% of physicians in other specialties recommend as HCC screening interval of 3 mo (P < 0.05). Seventy-one percent of doctors with an MD degree, 50% of doctors with a master degree or diploma and 60% of doctors with an MBBCH certificate follow the same recommendation.

CONCLUSION: In Egypt, physicians specialized in tropical medicine, internal medicine or gastroenterology with an MD degree and working in a University Hospital are best informed about HCC.

Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma; Egyptian physicians; Screening; Hepatocellular carcinoma knowledge; Hepatocellular carcinoma management; Hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosis

Core tip: We aim to assess the practice of Egyptian physicians in screening patients for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We included 154 Egyptian physicians caring for patients at risk for HCC, personal information and professional experience of them were analysed. Physicians specialized in tropical medicine, internal medicine or gastroenterology with an MD degree and working in a University Hospital are best informed about HCC.