Epidemiology of liver cancer in Italy with special regard to the autopsy studies in Trieste.

The authors report their data on epidemiology of liver cancer (LC) in Trieste. Because of the high autopsy rate in the Province (the ratio autopsies/deaths is about 70%), the findings allow to draw some conclusions which could be regarded as a paradigm, at least in Northern Italy: 1) At autopsy LC prevalence is about 1.8% and the value has been increasing over the last few years; 2) 95.4% of LC are hepatocellular (HCC) and 92.9% of the latter occur in cirrhotic livers. Patients with HCC and cirrhosis are 6 years younger than those affected by HCC alone. On the basis of the above reported conclusions, the role of liver cirrhosis as preneoplastic condition is discussed.