SHiNE-UK

This was the 2nd ToRcH-UK project, focusing on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), given that it is rapidly growing as a cause of cancer mortality. With low adherence to surveillance guidelines and significant heterogeneity in practice reported, this study aimed to retrospectively evaluate UK surveillance and care for patients with HCC between January 2022 and January 2024.

A total of 68 centres took part with 1,674 patients under surveillance. Only 68.4% of patients under surveillance had their recommended 6-monthly imaging. Concerningly, in those who developed HCC, only 44% had an early-stage diagnosis, and only 27% had curative first-line treatment. Furthermore, at the time of diagnosis of HCC, only 48% had known cirrhosis, and only 42% were enrolled in surveillance prior to this. These findings were presented at the International Liver Conference in 2025. This study has highlighted the failures in identifying cirrhosis as well as ineffective surveillance. These results have also been used at the BASL conference in 2025 to highlight the need to improve the quality of HCC surveillance in all centres to increase early diagnosis and potentially facilitate curative treatment.