Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is more common in Japan and is still increasing in occurrence. Our hospital is located in Itano Country, Tokushima Prefecture, wherein hepatitis C virus infection is prevalent with a high mortality from liver cirrhosis and HCC. Detecting and treating HCC in early stage is critical to the prognosis of patients, in that HCC nodule less than 2 cm are known to show more favorable outcome. To detect smaller HCC, we introduced a computer-assisted reg-istration system for the patients with chronic liver diseases from July 1995. The patients registered were regularly checked with laboratory and imaging examinations. Within 2.5 years, 351 patients were recorded in this registration system. In total, 49 patients including 21 (43%) with tumors less than 2 cm were found to have HCC during this period. Among 21 patients, 18 (86%) were included in the group registered. Therefore, we concluded that our registration system for the patients with chronic liver diseases are effective to detect smaller HCC.
