CBL combined with MDT mode in clinical teaching of liver cancer: a randomized controlled study

BACKGROUND: Liver cancer management requires multidisciplinary collaboration, yet traditional clinical teaching often fails to foster integrated clinical reasoning skills among medical students. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of combining case-based learning (CBL) with multidisciplinary team (MDT) mode in clinical teaching of liver cancer. METHODS: A total of 112 postgraduate students from Dali University Clinical Medical School who completed clinical internships at The Third People’s Hospital of Yunnan Province between January 2023 and June 2025 were enrolled and randomly assigned to experimental group (n = 56) and control group (n = 56). The control group received traditional lecture-based teaching, while the experimental group received CBL combined with MDT teaching. Teaching effectiveness was evaluated through theoretical examinations, clinical skills assessments using objective structured clinical examination (OSCE), and questionnaire surveys. Independent t-tests and chi-square tests were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The experimental group demonstrated significantly higher theoretical examination scores (87.15±5.34 vs. 81.23±6.12, t=3.41, P