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

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.