Epidemiology or primary liver cancer in Singapore.

Primary Liver Cancer occurs with high frequency in most parts of the East and South East Asia. The age standarised rates for most Western countries are below 2 per 100,000 per year for males and below 1 for females. In Singapore, the rate is 29.1 for males and 7.7 for females. There is a male preponderance in Singapore by a ratio of male to female of 3.8 in age standardised incidence rates. The peak incidence is the 6th decade (30.1% of cases) and in the 7th decade (31.7% of cases). The Chinese have the highest incidence amongst the different ethnic races. Epidemiological studies done on migrant population strongly suggest that environmental factors are more important than genetic factors in the aetiology of liver cancer.