prognosis of liver cancer
Last edited 05/2019 and last reviewed 10/2020
Hepatoma is invariably and rapidly fatal - without treatment, the average survival time from diagnosis is less than six months. The only hope of a cure is resection or liver transplantation. With surgical intervention, the 5 year survival is approximately 20%.
Metastases are unusual, but when they occur they are small and travel to lung and bone.
Liver cancer mortality is strongly related to age, with the highest mortality rates being in older people
- in the UK in 2014-2016, on average each year half (50%) of deaths were in people aged 75 and over
- largely reflects higher incidence and lower survival for liver cancer in older people
- age-specific mortality rates rise steadily from around age 45-49 and more steeply from around age 60-64
- highest rates are in the 85 to 89 age group for males and females
- mortality rates are significantly higher in males than females in a number of (mainly older) age groups. The gap is widest at age 60 to 64, when the age-specific mortality rate is 2.3 times higher in males than females.
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