Survival Rate information

From most standard liver diseases, patients can recover well if they are detected early and adequate treatment is given.

However, patients with liver cancer need to get prepared for "trying to live with it", as the liver cancer survival rate is quite low, especially when one has a metastatic liver cancer. Liver disease survival rates are the worst when one has cirrhosis, followed closely by metastatic liver cancer

The main reason for the low liver cancer survival rate are the signs of liver cancer, or better put: the absence of signs of liver cancer. Early symptoms of primary, as well as metastatic, liver cancer are vague and not unique to liver disorders. This makes that there normally is a long period between the beginning of the tumor's growth and the actual diagnosis of liver cancer. Once detected, chemotherapy might prolong life for a few months but will not cure it. In short the survival rate in liver cancer is low because the cure for cancer, especially liver cancer still has to be invented.

Statistics

From 1998-2002, the average age of people who died from liver cancer was 71 years of age.

The % of people who died from liver cancer based on age were:

• 0.5 percent died under age 20
• 0.8 percent died between 20 and 34
• 3.2 percent died between 35 and 44
• 13.0 percent died between 45 and 54
• 17.4 percent died between 55 and 64
• 26.8 percent died between 65 and 74
• 27.4 percent died between 75 and 84
• 10.9 percent died at 85 or more years of age.