Hepatocellular Carcinoma ( Liver Cancer ) : Introduction

Hepatocellular carcinoma is a tumor of the liver. Hepatocellular carcinoma is responsible for over 12,000 deaths per year in the United States where the incidence of the disease is approximately 2.5 per 100,000 population. It is one of the most common malignancies in adults, and is more common in men than women (2-4:1), and blacks than whites. Worldwide, over a million deaths per year (about 10% of all deaths in the adult age range) can be attributed to hepatocellular carcinoma. The occurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma varies widely depending on geographic location. Whereas incidence in the Western world is less than two per 100,000 males, it is currently 40-60 per 100,000 in Africa and parts of the Far East. In the United States, hepatocellular carcinoma is more common in people of East Asian origin. In the future, the prevalence of hepatocellular carcinoma may increase in the United States and parts of Europe because of the high incidence of hepatitis C. At the same time, many experts expect incidence rates to decline in the Far East due to universal immunization for hepatitis B. Figure 2 illustrates the geographic distribution of hepatocellular carcinoma.