Liver cancer to double worldwide, most of it preventable, study says

FILE - In this May 25, 2017 file photo, chemotherapy drugs are administered to a patient at a hospital in Chapel Hill, N.C.

The number of people with liver cancer will nearly double worldwide by 2050 unless more is done to address preventable causes such as obesity, alcohol consumption and hepatitis, a study warned Tuesday.

New cases of liver cancer -- the sixth most common form of the disease -- will rise to 1.52 million a year from 870,000 if current trends continue, according to data from the Global Cancer Observatory published in the Lancet medical journal.

It is also the third deadliest of all cancers, with the study predicting it would take 1.37 million lives by the middle of the century.

However three out of five cases of liver cancer could be prevented, the international team of experts said.

The risk factors are drinking alcohol, viral hepatitis and a build-up of fat in the liver linked to obesity called MASLD, which was previously known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

The viruses that cause hepatitis B and C are expected to remain the leading causes of liver cancer in 2050, according to the study, published on World Hepatitis Day.

Vaccination at birth is the best way to prevent hepatitis B, but vaccine coverage remains low in poorer countries including in sub-Saharan Africa, the study said.

Unless vaccination rates are increased, hepatitis B is expected to kill 17 million people between 2015 and 2030, it added.

Alcohol consumption is estimated to cause more than 21 percent of all cases of liver cancer by 2050, up more than two percentage points from 2022.

Cancer due to obesity-linked fat in livers will rise to 11 percent, also up more than two percentage points, the researchers calculated.

The large-scale study, which reviewed the available evidence on the subject, underscored “the urgent need for global action” on liver cancer, the authors said.

The experts called for more public awareness about the preventable danger of liver cancer, particularly by warning people with obesity or diabetes about fatty-liver disease in the United States, Europe and Asia.