Liver disease, dubbed the “national disease” of Taiwanese for
decades, continues to take the lives of an average of 35 people in the
nation each day, and nearly 85 percent of liver cancer cases are caused
by hepatitis B and hepatitis C, the Liver Disease Prevention and
Treatment Research Foundation said.
The foundation made the
remarks at a ceremony in Taipei on Saturday celebrating its 20th
anniversary, during which it vowed to step up its decades-long effort to
eliminate the cancer that has been the second-leading cause of
cancer-related deaths in the country.
“If every patient with
hepatitis B and hepatitis C is willing to receive regular screening
tests and treatments before their condition turns into cirrhosis, we
will be able to put an end to liver cancer within 20 years,” foundation
chief executive officer Yang Pei-ming (楊培銘) said.
Read more... Labels: epidemiology, Liver cancer HCC, Taiwan