Stakeholder perspectives on European priorities for comprehensive liver cancer control: a conjoint analysis

As liver cancer incidence and mortality remain high in many parts of Europe, a more comprehensive response is required to reduce the burden. Expert stakeholders should be involved in the design of responses because they have important insights about potentially effective responses and will be affected by policy changes. We aimed to prioritize liver cancer control strategies based on European liver cancer stakeholders' views of which strategies would have the greatest impact in a comprehensive liver cancer control plan.

One hundred liver cancer clinical, policy and advocacy stakeholders from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Turkey were surveyed. Respondents completed 12 conjoint choice tasks in which they chose which of two subsets of 11 strategies would have the greatest impact in their country.

All strategies were considered likely to have a positive impact (P < 0.01). The highest priority strategy was monitoring of at-risk populations, followed by centres of excellence, clinical education, multidisciplinary management, national guidelines, measuring social burden, public awareness, risk assessment and referral, research infrastructure and access to treatments.

Canvassing stakeholder views through a conjoint analysis survey provided a robust quantitative prioritization that can complement traditional qualitative consultation processes. The prioritized strategies provide a logical starting point for decision makers considering developing national plans or collaborative efforts to achieve comprehensive liver cancer control in Europe.