Liver Cancer — Prevention and Early Diagnosis —

Primary liver cancer occurs mainly as a result of chronic liver disorders due to hepatitis virus infection. The important thing in preventing liver cancer is to prevent hepatitis virus infection and eliminate hepatitis virus in chronic hepatitis patients. In order to eliminate hepatitis virus in chronic viral hepatitis, therapies with interferon or recently introduced lamivudine are indicated for hepatitis B patients, and therapies with interferon and combination of interferon and ribavirin are indicated for hepatitis C. However, there exist patients for whom antiviral therapy is ineffective or not beneficial, and drugs to control inflammation act to delay onset of liver cancer in such patients. In patients of the high-risk group for liver cancer such as those with advanced chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis, early diagnosis of liver cancer is essential. For this purpose, it is recommended to perform cancer screening regularly by diagnostic imaging using ultrasonic examinations of the abdomen and measurements of liver cancer markers such as AFP or PIVKA-II.