Abstract
Background
With the rising prevalence of obesity, increasing alcohol consumption and the advances in hepatitis virus treatment, liver cancer epidemiology gradually changes. However, the impact of these changes on liver cancer burden in China remains unclear. This study aimed to assess temporal trends in liver cancer burden across the whole country and 33 province-level administrative regions and the contributions of various liver cancer etiologies in China from 2010 to 2016.
Methods
The age-standardized incidence/death rate for liver cancer from 2010 to 2016 was evaluated according to sex, age, and etiology using data from the 2016 Global Burden of Disease study. The liver cancer-related age-standardized rates in the 33 province-level administrative regions of China were obtained from the National Central Cancer Registry.
Results
From 2010 to 2016, there were 25% and 22% increase in liver cancer incidence and death respectively, while the age-standardized incidence/death rate remained stable. South China, especially rural South, had the highest incidence and death rate of liver cancer in the whole country. The proportion of alcohol and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis-associated liver cancer incidence and death increased, whereas that of HBV-associated liver cancer incidence and death decreased from 2010 to 2016. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis was the only etiology with an increase in liver cancer incidence rate, and alcohol showed the fast-growing incidence of liver cancer in some age groups.
Conclusions
Urgent measures are required at a national level to tackle the underlying metabolic risk factors and slow down the rising burden of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis -induced liver cancer.