What question did this study set out to answer?

This research examines the healthcare resource utilization and costs associated with disease recurrence in early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

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April 10, 2026Open Access

Economic Burden of Recurrence in Early-Stage Hepatocellular Carcinoma Treated with Surgical Resection or Local Ablation in the United States: A Retrospective Analysis of Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results–Medicare Data

Key Points

This research examines the healthcare resource utilization and costs associated with disease recurrence in early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Used Medicare data for a retrospective analysis of early-stage HCC cases
Compared healthcare resource utilization between recurrence and non-recurrence groups
Analyzed costs associated with surgical resection and local ablation procedures
Patients with disease recurrence faced significantly higher total healthcare costs
Increased healthcare resource utilization was observed among patients withrecurrence compared to those who remained recurrence free
Findings highlighted the economic impact of recurrent disease on healthcare systems

Abstract

Findings suggest a significant HRU burden and high total healthcare costs for patients with early-stage HCC who experience disease recurrence after curative-intent therapy compared with patients who remain recurrence free. This underscores a need for future novel therapies that offer recurrence-free survival benefits and have the potential to reduce the economic burden of managing early-stage HCC.

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Cite This Study

Mehta et al. (Wed,) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69d895d86c1944d70ce06f89 https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s12325-026-03562-y

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