Multifactorial Contributors to Diagnostic Delay in a High-Risk Patient with Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Case Report with Clinical Lessons.
Jiao Hu, Liping Guo, Tongen Chen et al.
✦ AI-curated · Sources linked
Case in brief
A 45-year-old Chinese man with chronic hepatitis B, type 2 diabetes, and a family history of primary liver cancer (PLC) was at high risk but had no regular PLC surveillance for three years. During encounters for acute myocardial infarction and abdominal pain, clinicians did not recognize progression in liver imaging findings. Follow-up and access to care may also have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The combined failures contributed to delayed PLC diagnosis; the abstract does not report the diagnostic test, treatment, or outcome.
What made this case unusual
The diagnostic delay arose across multiple encounters: progressive liver imaging findings were not acted on during care for unrelated acute problems, alongside gaps in surveillance and possible pandemic-related barriers.
Diagnostic / clinical pearl
In high-risk patients, AFP alone cannot exclude PLC; surveillance should rely on liver imaging, and newly detected or progressive lesions warrant further characterization according to guideline-based recommendations.
Why it matters
The case highlights that surveillance can fail through interacting patient, clinician, and social-environmental factors, not simply through a single missed test.