• Incidence trend: Ranked the third globally and the second in China in mortality rate among all cancer types. The age of onset is 10 years younger in China.
• Cure rate: Overall cure rate is only 30%-40%. Liver cancer is also prone to metastasis and rapid progression.
• Predisposing factors: Not fully known. Both environment and diet contribute to liver cancer etiology, especially chronic HBV infection.

Disease characteristics

       Liver cancer can be divided into primary and secondary types. Primary liver cancer originates from the epithelial or mesenchymal tissues of the liver, with hepatocellular carcinoma being the most common. Secondary liver cancer is metastatic cancer that spreads from other organs to the liver and is more common than primary liver cancer. The insidiousness of live cancer often leaves the patients unaware of their condition until diagnosis at late stages when less treatment options are available, thus resulting in poor survival rate. Currently, primary liver cancer is usually detected by serum markers or imaging.