Assessing the Impact of Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) Care on Patients with Liver Cancer/Cirrhosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Liver cancer and cirrhosis are significant public health challenges with a high global burden. Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) care has gained recognition as a promising approach to improve the management and outcomes of patients with liver cancer and cirrhosis. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of MDT care in improving the clinical outcomes, including survival rates, quality of life, and disease progression, in patients with liver cancer and cirrhosis.

The search was performed using the keywords of liver cancer and MDT and their combinations in international databases with a time limit for publishing articles from 2010 and 2023. The data were evaluated using a technique of meta-analysis as well as a model called random effects. The I2 test was used to examine the degree of heterogeneity between the studies. STATA was used to analyze the data.

The analysis of 13 different papers with a total sample size of 8641 individuals revealed that the average scores of the MDT and liver cancer were identical to (0.64), with a confidence interval ranging from (95% 48.5-81.7).

MDT is effective in the length of treatment and reduction of risk and mortality rates. The negative prognostic factors of not following the MDT decision were not observed.