State of the Art – Hepatocellular Carcinoma Professeur Olivier

Primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma, HCC) is the fifth most common cancer in men and the seventh in women worldwide. It rarely occurs before the age of 40 years and reaches its peak incidence at approximatively 70 years of age. Major risk factors for HCC include: infection with hepatitis B (HBV) or hepatitis C (HCV), alcoholic liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and less frequently, hereditary haemochromatosis, primary biliary cirrhosis, alpha 1-antitrypsine deficiency or autoimmune hepatitis. Cirrhosis has the strongest association with HCC and is the most common known risk factor. HCC also occurs in non-cirrhotic livers in 10-15 % of cases with viraland alcoholic-associated chronic liver diseases and in 40-60% of cases with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).