Objective: Liver cancer is the sixth common cancer and the second leading cause of death from cancer around the world. It is significantly more observable among male with its highest incidence in the age group of 45 to 60 years. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence, mortality, and risk factors of liver cancer in the world.
Materials and Methods: This review study was performed on published English studies by searching for databases PubMed, Scopus and web of science up to end of 2017. The strategy search includes key words of “Liver cancer”, “Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC)”, “Epidemiology”, “Incidence”, “Mortality”, “Risk Factors”, and “The World”. We reviewed studies on the incidence, mortality, and risk factors of liver cancer.
Results: Generally, liver cancer is more common in the East Asia with, the highest incidence rate in Mongolia. The standard incidence of liver cancer was 10.1 per 100,000 people (15.3 in males and 5.3 in females). The highest mortality rates occurred observed in the East Asian countries. The standardized mortality rate for liver cancer was 9.5 per 100,000 people (14.3 in males and 5.1 in females). The most important risk factors for liver cancer included the chronic infections with HBV and HCV, Aflatoxin, alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking.
Conclusions: Liver cancer has a higher incidence rate in East Asian countries. Majority of the cases are detected mostly at the advanced level of disease. Then, an early diagnosis could be effective in reducing mortality rate of this cancer. Also, conparing HCV(hepatitis C virus) and HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) may lead to reducing risk factors of liver cancer.