Survival rate for liver cancer in Taiwan

There is no nationwide population-based study of the survival rate for liver cancer in Taiwan. Consequently, the true rate of liver cancer survival is unknown. Our aim was to determine the survival rate for liver cancer patients in Taiwan.

The Taiwan Cancer Registry was searched for liver cancer cases in 1987 and 2,558 cases were found. Of these, 485 lacked an identification number, 29 lacked documentation of age, 33 were metastatic, nine lived in Kinmen and Lienkiang Hsien of Fukien Province leaving 2,002 to be studied. With the help of identification numbers, we linked our cases with the Death Registry of the Department of Health, Executive Yuan, ROC, for the 1987 to 1992 period and calculated the five-year survival rate using actuarial life tables. For analyzing factors affecting the five-year survival rate, multivariate analysis with the Cox proportional hazards model was used.

Of the 2,002 patients, 752 were diagnosed histopathologically and 1,250 patients were diagnosed clinically. A total of 15% of patients survived for five years or longer after diagnosis. Of those diagnosed histopathologically, 17% survived for five or more years, and of those diagnosed clinically, 13% survived for five or more years. The sex, age, residential area and ethnic origin did not affect the five-year survival rate significantly. Only diagnosis type affected the five-year survival rate significantly (p < 0.05). The 660 pathologically diagnosed liver cancer patients had a better survival rate than the 1,250 patients diagnosed clinically.

The overall five-year survival rate for liver cancer in Taiwan was 15%. The prognosis for liver cancer patients in Taiwan is still unfavorable. The aim is to persuade affected patients to accept treatment.