Xinhua Network reported on January 24th that Hepatology (District 1, Chinese Academy of Sciences, IF=17.425), an international journal of hepatology, had published online the significant results of the epidemiology of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) produced by the multidisciplinary Comprehensive Treatment Group (MDT) in the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University. The results are as follow: by summarizing and analyzing the status quo and causes of the sharp decline in hepatocellular carcinoma in the United States in the past decade through big data, the results provide important reference for China to fight against liver cancer.
The paper is titled Declining disease burden of hepatocellular carcinoma in the US,1992-2017: A population-based analysis. In this study, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University is the only signatory unit. Professor Fu Zhenming who is the deputy director of oncology Center and Professor Chen Mingkai from department of Gastroenterology are the corresponding authors of this paper. Professor Wang Bin from department of Hepatobiliary Surgery and Han Jianglongwho is a postgraduate student from the First Clinical College are the first authors of this paper. This study is based on the long-term efforts of the multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment group of liver cancer in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University.
Fu Zhenming said that in recent decades, despite the great efforts made by the global public health programs in combating liver cancer, the incidence rate and mortality rate of liver cancer worldwide are still rising. According to the report of cancer statistics 2022, liver cancer is the 12th most common malignant tumor in the United States, accounting for the fifth in the cause of tumor related death.
The liver cancer MDT team of Renmin Hospital analyzed the incidence, mortality rate, and survival rate of hepatocellular carcinoma in the United States from 1992 to 2017. They drew data from the GBD database of the World Health Organization's Global Burden of Diseases Study, as well as the SEER Database of final results and monitoring epidemiology of the US National Cancer Institute. The results showed a significant decrease in hepatocellular carcinoma deaths in the United States since 2013 (the year-over-year percentage of change: -3.2%, P<0.001); its incidence has declined significantly since 2011 (the annual percentage of change: -2.3%, P< 0.001), while the survival rate increased yearly. This suggests that the burden of liver cancer in the United States may have begun to decline.
Using an “age-time-cohort model”, the research team analyzed the factors that may have contributed to the decline in the disease burden of HCC, including changes in HCC risk factors, advances in hepatitis virus vaccination and treatment, as well as progress in HCC diagnosis, staging and treatment techniques. At the same time, the study suggests that if obesity, alcohol consumption and drug abuse among the young generation in America remain unchecked, the burden of liver cancer-related disease could rerise.
According to Fu Zhenming, 910,000 new cases of liver cancer would occur globally in 2020, of which 410,000 would occur in China, accounting for more than 45% of the global total. This study provides important reference and experience for China to fight liver cancer and reduce the burden of disease, especially for improving the prognosis of patients with liver cancer. The MDT team organized by Wuhan University Renmin Hospital Cancer Center, department of Gastroenterology, Hepatobiliary Surgery and other departments have made fruitful achievements in clinical diagnosis and treatment, offering standardized and individualized treatment for a large number of patients with liver cancer. Many advanced patients have received good treatment or even been cured. Related results and experiences have also been published in Anticancer Drugs, which have been well received in the field.
Link to the paper:
https://aasldpubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hep.32355
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35073427/
Rewritten by Liang Keke
Edited by Shen Yutian
