Trials and papersHepatocellular carcinoma

This is the registry reading itself, and it is the source every Korean cancer figure on OnCo should be traced to. It shows a country where incidence is still rising with age while death rates keep falling, and where most of the survival gain comes from finding cancers earlier.

For liver cancers that have stopped responding, national genome sequencing found something to target in most patients, but only matches backed by stronger evidence (ESCAT I to III) helped. The authors say the combined sequencing found alterations beyond the reach of standard sequencing panels; the study did not test panels side by side.

For someone offered the test, these are the numbers that describe what a result means in an NHS population: about 1 in 100 tests came back positive each year, between 46 and 58 in 100 positives were cancer, and a negative result left about 1 in 100 with an undetected cancer within the year. The test found between a quarter and a third of all cancers diagnosed in a screening round, and about half to two thirds of the 12 cancer types it was designed to find. Whether finding them this way reduces late-stage diagnoses is the primary question, and this paper says only that the answer was no; the primary-endpoint paper had not appeared on Europe PMC by 23 September 2026.

Every insured Korean adult from 40 is offered a stomach endoscopy every two years, and people at high risk of liver cancer an ultrasound and blood test every six months. This review, by the researchers who run the programme, sets out how that came about.

Strong figures in hospital patients, but at about 94 to 96% specificity roughly one in twenty people without cancer would test positive, too many for screening healthy people without a second test.

A phase 2 signal that looked like a survival benefit, tested in 459 patients, turned out to be nothing, and delaying effective systemic treatment to give the virus first made outcomes worse. The authors' own conclusion is that the arrival of checkpoint inhibitors should direct any further development of oncolytic virus strategies, which is a polite way of saying this design is finished.

It is the nearest thing Pakistan has to a national cancer count, and its authors point out that most of the commonest cancers are largely preventable: oral cancer correlates with chewing habits, and liver, lung and cervical cancer with hepatitis B and C, smoking and high-risk human papillomavirus. It counts registered cases, not population incidence.

There is no safe level of alcohol for cancer risk, and the risk is highest for cancers of the mouth, throat, oesophagus, liver, bowel and breast. Public awareness is low; most people do not know alcohol causes breast cancer. Warning labels and minimum pricing are the policy levers being debated.