Weapon against liver cancer

Press, 7 March 1983, Page 20

Weapon against liver cancer

Vaccination against hepatitis could largely prevent liver cancer and save tens of thousands of lives a' year, according to new medical studies. Senior doctors from 16' countries said after a meeting in Geneva that "for the first time unique opportunities exist to prevent a frequent cancer by vaccination."

Liver cancer is one of the 10 most common cancers in the world and one of the most deadly. Particularly prevalent in developing countries, it strikes 250,000 people a year. Few survive. Professor Arie Zuckerman, professor of microbiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who co-chaired the Geneva

meeting, said he believed a new vaccine might prevent 80 per cent of liver cancer and that 200,000 lives a year could be saved “at a conservative estimate.” Field tests on the vaccine will be held in West Africa, Burma and China. Doctors say the breakthrough is possible because many of the people who contract liver cancer are afflicted with the virus, hepatitis B.