Trends in the incidence of primary liver and biliary tract cancers in England and Wales 1971–2001

Abstract

In the last two decades, mortality from primary liver cancer has increased in the UK. We aimed to determine whether the incidence trends for these cancers were similar and in particular if the increasing occurrence of cholangiocarcinoma has continued. We calculated directly age-standardised incidence rates (using the European standard population) by subsite and histological type for all cancers of the liver, gallbladder and biliary tract in England and Wales from 1971 to 2001, using cancer registry data. The incidence of cancers of the liver, gallbladder and biliary tract increased, with the greatest rise, around 12-fold, in intrahepatic bile duct cancers. The rate of liver cell cancer increased by around 45% in males, but by o10% in females. There were marked reductions in the incidence of gallbladder and extrahepatic bile duct cancer. Cholangiocarcinoma increased around 16-fold and became the most common type of primary liver cancer in females, while hepatocellular carcinoma remained the commonest type in males. The age-specific incidence rates showed that intrahepatic bile duct cancer continued to increase throughout the 1990s in those aged 75 and over, while liver cell cancer decreased in the older age groups. In conclusion, there were increases in the incidence of primary liver cancer, which have been particularly dramatic for intrahepatic bile duct cancer, over the last three decades of the 20th century in England and Wales. There has been a halving in the incidence of gallbladder cancer and a reduction of a third in extrahepatic bile duct cancer.

Randomized phase II study of gemcitabine plus S‐1 versus S‐1 in advanced biliary tract cancer: A Japan Clinical Oncology Group trial (JCOG 0805)

“…At the data cut-off point (April 2011; median follow-up time for all randomized patients, 10.6 months), four patients in the GS arm and one patient in the S-1 arm were still receiving the protocol treatment. Among the other patients, the median number of cycles of GS given was 10 (range, 1-34; interquartile range, [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] and that of S-1 was 3 (range, 1-9; interquartile range, 1-4). At the data cut-off point, 95% (96 ⁄ 101) of the patients terminated the protocol treatment.…”

Gene Expression Profiling of Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma

“…Although the incidence of ICC had been primarily associated with developing countries, ICC is now increasing in developed countries, especially in the United Kingdom and Japan (Kato et al, 1990;TaylorRobinson et al, 1997;McLean and Patel, 2006;West et al, 2006). Thailand has the highest incidence of ICC in the world, perhaps related to a tradition of eating raw fish, which may be contaminated with the liver fluke parasite, Opisthorchis viverrini, a cause of cholangiocarcinoma (Kurathong et al, 1985;Vatanasapt et al, 1990;Parkin et al, 1991;Thamavit et al, 1993;Sripa and Pairojkul, 2008).…”

Guggulsterone inhibits human cholangiocarcinoma Sk-ChA-1 and Mz-ChA-1 cell growth by inducing caspase-dependent apoptosis and downregulation of survivin and Bcl-2 expression

“…Cholangiocarcinoma is a malignancy that arises from the neoplastic transformation of cholangiocytes, and currently, this disease accounts for between 10 and 15% of all hepatobiliary tumors and the incidence is rising globally (1,2). Despite previous advances in illustrating the molecular characteristics of cholangiocarcinoma, the treatment remains challenging, and there has been no significant change in the overall five-year survival rate of patients over previous decades (3,4).…”