Epidemiological Aspects of Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Diego Serraino, Lucia Fratino, Pierluca Piselli
Abstract
Each year, about 900,000 persons are diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) worldwide, making HCC the fifth most frequent incident cancer in men (69.8% of all HCC are in men) and the ninth in women. HCC incidence rates vary greatly according to geographic areas: 72.5% of all cases are registered in Asia, with 11.6 new cases per year every 100,000 inhabitants. In the United States and Europe, HCC is less common, with 5.2 new yearly cases per 100,000 individuals. A total of 830,000 persons die because of HCC each year (HCC is the third cause of oncological deaths), and the combination of HCC incidence and mortality rates results in 995,000 people living with HCC worldwide. Most of these “prevalent” cases are males (69.8%), and from Asia (73.6%). According to data collected from 107 European cancer registries for more than 10 million cancer patients, the EUROCARE study estimated in 12% the 5-year survival for all European HCC patients—an estimate lower than the one from the US (i.e., 20.3%). With regard to risk factors, it is worth stressing that infection with hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus are the most frequent causes of HCC, followed by alcohol consumption.