OBJECTIVEThe national population-based cancer registration data were used to analyze the liver cancer incidence and trend in China, in order to provide advise for making further strategy on liver cancer prevention and control.

METHODSLiver cancer data of 2011 were retrieved from the database of the National Cancer Registry. The incident cases of liver cancer were estimated using age-specific rate by urban or rural areas and gender according to the national population in 2011. Liver cancer incidence data from 22 cancer registries were used to analyze the incidence trend during 2000-2011.

RESULTSThe estimates of new cases of liver cancer were about 356 thousand in China in 2011. The incidence rate was 26.39/10(5,) and the age-standardized incidence rates by Chinese standard population and by world population were 19.48/10(5) and 19.10/10(5,) respectively.There was an increasing trend of incidence rate of liver cancer in China during 2000-2011 with an average annual percentage change(AAPC) of 1.0% (95%CI: 0.5%-1.4%), 1.2% (95%CI: 0.7%-1.8%)in urban areas and 1.1% (95%CI: 0.5%-1.8%) in rural areas. After age standardization, the incidence rate was significantly decreased, with an AAPC of -1.8% (95%CI: -2.4% to -1.2%), -1.6% (95%CI: -2.2% to -0.9%) in urban and -1.4% (95%CI: -2.5% to -0.3%) in rural areas.

CONCLUSIONSLiver cancer is a common cancer in China. As changing in people's dietary habits and implementing neonatal HBV vaccination for years, the exposure to risk factors is reducing, and age-standardized incidence rate is decreasing. While cardinal number of population is big and aging population is growing rapidly in the country, trend of incidence rate is increasing, and the burden of liver cancer is still high in China.