Lifestyle changes and vaccination ‘could prevent most liver cancer cases’

Three in five liver cancer cases globally could be prevented by reducing obesity and alcohol consumption and increasing uptake of the hepatitis vaccine, a study has found.

The Lancet Commission on liver cancer found that most cases were preventable if alcohol consumption, fatty liver disease and levels of viral hepatitis B and C were reduced.

The commission set out several recommendations for policymakers, which it estimated could reduce the incidence of liver cancer cases by 2% to 5% each year by 2050, preventing 9m to 17m new cases of liver cancer and saving 8 million to 15 million lives.

Prof Jian Zhou at Fudan University in China, who led the research, said: “Liver cancer is a growing health issue around the world. It is one of the most challenging cancers to treat, with five-year survival rates ranging from approximately 5% to 30%. We risk seeing close to a doubling of cases and deaths from liver cancer over the next quarter of a century without urgent action to reverse this trend.”

The commission author Prof Hashem B El-Serag of Baylor College of Medicine in the US said: “Liver cancer was once thought to occur mainly in patients with viral hepatitis or alcohol-related liver disease. However, today, rising rates of obesity are an increasing risk factor for liver cancer, primarily due to the increase in cases of excess fat around the liver.”

The commission’s recommendations included that governments boost HBV vaccination and implement universal screening for adults; introduce minimum alcohol unit pricing and sugar taxes along with warning labels; invest in early detection of liver damage and cancer; and improve palliative care for sufferers.

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Source: The Guardian, 28 July 2025