Japan's long hepatitis fight is quietly rewriting its liver-cancer story

For decades, most liver-cancer deaths in Japan traced back to viral hepatitis. A new analysis in The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific shows how completely that has flipped: deaths from non-viral causes rose from 6.8% of liver-cancer deaths in 1992 to 56.0% in 2019 — not because those causes exploded, but because hepatitis-related deaths fell so far under Japan's long, integrated control programme. Researcher Tomoyuki Akita says the country is approaching viral hepatitis elimination; the next task is holding those gains while tackling alcohol-related and metabolic liver disease.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being