Screening for liver cancer

What is cancer screening?

Screening means testing people for early stages of a disease. This is before they have any symptoms. For screening to be useful the tests:

• need to be reliable at picking up cancers

• overall must do more good than harm to people taking part

• must be something that people are willing to do

Screening tests are not perfect and have some risks. The screening programme should also be good value for money for the NHS.

Why isn't there a screening programme for liver cancer?

There is no screening programme for liver cancer in the UK because:

• it's rare so we wouldn't find many cancers

• there's no suitable test to use for liver cancer screening

• the cost of screening would be high

Testing for people at high risk of liver cancer

There are some groups of people that are at higher risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HCC is the most common type of primary liver cancer.

Your doctor might recommend surveillance if you have:

• scarring of your liver (liver cirrhosis)

• long term (chronic) hepatitis B infection

Your doctor will also look at factors such as your age and how much scarring (fibrosis) your liver has.

Find out about the risks and causes of liver cancer

If you are at higher risk, you might have an ultrasound scan every 6 months to check for growths in your liver. You may also have a blood test for AFP (alpha fetoprotein), which can be raised in some people with HCC.

Having these tests regularly can pick up hepatocellular cancers earlier. This means they might be smaller and treatment like surgery or ablation may be possible. 

Speak to your liver specialist at your next check up if you have cirrhosis and are concerned that you're not having tests. 

Read more about tests for primary liver cancer