Mortality from primary liver cancer in Switzerland from 1975 to 1994

The aim of the present study was to analyze the mortality from primary liver cancer in Switzerland over a 20 year period and compare our results with the mortality data from Germany, France, Italy and Austria.

Absolute and age-standardized mortality rates for primary liver cancer from 1975 to 1994 were obtained from the Swiss Federal Office of Statistics. The corresponding figures (1980-1994) for Germany, France, Italy and Austria were extracted from the World Health Organization mortality database.

The average age standardized mortality rate from primary liver cancer in Swiss men increased by 33% over the last twenty years from 3.9 to 5.2/100,000 people, whereas it remained unchanged on a much lower level in women (around 1.1/100,000). A similar increase was observed in men from France (91%), Italy (44%) and Germany (52%), whereas in Austria (5%) the increase was much less pronounced.

The rising mortality from primary liver cancer in Switzerland is restricted to Swiss men. The changes in Switzerland are very similar to those in France, Italy and Germany. The reason for this increase remains unknown, but could be related to an increase in HCV-related primary liver cancer. Population based studies analyzing the aetiology of the underlying liver disease associated with HCCs detected are required to address this issue.