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Liver cancer

What is liver cancer? Find out how common it is, the causes, and expert advice on how to reduce your risk.

Liver

What is liver cancer?

The liver is your body’s largest internal organ and has many important functions. It helps you to digest proteins and fats, removes toxins (such as alcohol and other cancer-causing substances) from your body, and helps to control blood clotting.

There are different types of liver cancer. The most common type is hepatocellular carcinoma, accounting for 90 per cent of liver cancers.

How common is liver cancer?

Liver cancer is the 16th most common cancer in the UK (2021 data), and the 6th most common in the world (2022 data).

Men

Liver cancer is the 13th most common cancer in men in the UK, and the 5th most common in men globally.

Women

Liver cancer is the 18th most common cancer in women in the UK, and the 9th most common in women globally.

Region Cases Year
UK 6,745 2021
World 866,136 2022
Sources: UK cancer statistics based on combined data from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. World Cancer Research Fund, 2024. International cancer statistics from Globocan.

What are the signs and symptoms of liver cancer?

Liver cancer may not have any symptoms, or they may be hard to spot. They can include:

  • your skin or the whites of your eyes turning yellow (jaundice)
  • a lump in your tummy
  • loss of appetite or losing weight without trying to

Find more information on liver cancer symptoms on the NHS website.

Help for you

Our free health guides and cookbooks are written by experts to help more people prevent and survive cancer. Order yours today!

5 simple steps
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5 simple steps

Our guide is for people wanting to make healthy changes but aren’t sure where to start. Order today for real-life advice, practical tips and a handy guide that you can keep in your bag to browse.

Weight matters
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Weight matters

For anyone who wants to manage their weight. Today’s environment can make weight gain easier and weight loss harder but there are lots of positive things you can do.

The facts about alcohol
Alcohol factsheet

The facts about alcohol

Whether you drink a little or a lot, and whether you drink beer or cider, wine or spirits, it’s important to know the facts about alcohol – and that includes the harm that drinking can do.

What causes liver cancer?

There are many different things that affect your risk of liver cancer.

Evidence for what can cause liver cancer comes from large population studies (called epidemiology) and biological studies (where scientists look at cells in a laboratory).

If the risk factors below affect you, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you will develop liver cancer.

Alcohol 

Drinking alcohol increases the risk of liver cancer. 

> Support and information on the links between alcohol and cancer 

Weight 

People living with overweight or obesity have a higher risk of developing liver cancer.  

> Read more on the links between weight and cancer  

> Get a free Weight matters guide 

Disease, infection and infestation

Cirrhosis (scarring of the liver), hepatitis and liver flukes can all cause liver cancer.

Aflatoxins 

Eating food contaminated by aflatoxins (toxins produced by certain fungi) increases the risk of liver cancer. Aflatoxins are produced by moulds growing on agricultural crops and are a problem in regions with hot, damp climates and poor storage facilities. Aflatoxin contamination tends to be highest in sub-Saharan Africa and south-east Asia, as well as China, and rates of liver cancer are high in these countries. 

> Global liver cancer statistics

Smoking 

Smoking increases the risk of liver cancer. In smokers who also have hepatitis B or hepatitis C virus infection, the risk is increased further, and those who smoke as well as consume large amounts of alcohol may also be at increased risk compared with those who do not smoke or drink.

Oral contraceptives 

Long-term use of oral contraceptives containing high doses of oestrogen and progesterone increases the risk of liver cancer. 

Gender 

Men are more likely to develop liver cancer than women. 

Age 

Older people are more at risk of developing liver cancer. 

What protects against liver cancer?

Coffee

We have strong evidence that drinking coffee decreases your risk of liver cancer. However, it’s not as simple as just telling everyone to drink more coffee! 

To be able to provide reliable advice on drinking coffee, we need more evidence on things like: 

  • how much you should drink 
  • how regularly 
  • different types of coffee 
  • decaff vs caffeinated 

We also need to be sure that coffee doesn’t have any harmful effects. 

Other risk factors

Our Expert Panel of scientists has also looked at other things that may be linked with the risk of liver cancer. The evidence for the risk factors listed below is limited, and we do not recommend that you change your behaviour only on the basis of these risk factors. There is some evidence that:

  • consuming fish may decrease the risk of liver cancer.
  • being physically active may decrease the risk of liver cancer.

For scientists: full references, pathogenesis and a summary of the mechanisms underpinning our findings on how to prevent liver cancer can be found in our 2018 liver cancer report.

Reduce your risk of liver cancer

Following our Cancer Prevention Recommendations reduces your risk of liver cancer. If you have been diagnosed with cancer, following our Recommendations can reduce the risk of cancer returning.

Don’t drink alcohol

Drinking alcohol is linked to liver cancer – and other cancers. To reduce your risk of cancer, we recommend not drinking alcohol at all.

> Expert tips on reducing how much alcohol you drink

> Free factsheet on alcohol

Don’t smoke

You can reduce your risk of liver cancer by not smoking. If you do smoke, giving up smoking will reduce your risk.

In the UK, the NHS stop smoking service can help you quit.

Be a healthy weight

Reaching – and staying at – a healthy weight can reduce your risk of liver cancer, many other cancers, and other diseases.

But it’s not easy. Visit our weight and cancer page for more information about how weight affects the risk of developing cancer, and support to help you stay a healthy weight.

You can also read about how our Policy team encourage governments to make it easier for everyone to be a healthy weight.

> Helping to make the healthy choice the easy choice

Liver cancer survival

Our Living with cancer section can help if you are living with liver cancer.

Here to help

Cancer and Nutrition Helpline