Deaths from liver cancer are common, especially in East Asia and Pacific, South Asia, and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, largely as a result of infection decades ago. As the toll from other cancers is likely to climb in the coming decades, however, liver cancer incidence and mortality rates should fall, as generations vaccinated against the hepatitis B virus (HBV)—the cause of most liver cancers globally—reach middle and old age. Much still needs to be done and it is feasible and affordable to hasten the decline. Much can also be done to address other causes of liver cancer—including some on the rise, in particular, obesity-related non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFD)—in the coming years and decades. The latter half of the twentieth century witnessed the identification of the main causes of liver cancer and deployment of the first cancer prevention vaccine for humans. All of the risk factors that lead to cirrhosis cause at least as many noncancer deaths as cancer deaths. Controlling these risk factors would not only reduce the incidence of liver cancer; it would also reduce the incidence of cirrhosis and its other complications, notably, end-stage liver disease and portal hypertension.
© 2015 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank.