Researchers begin to link non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH, to increased liver cancer risk. NASH involves inflammation and fat accumulation in the liver that is usually caused by obesity or diabetes. NASH develops in as many as 95 percent of people with morbid obesity and type 2 diabetes. One study estimates that just over 10 percent of liver cancer cases in the U.S. are caused by NASH. These findings point to important new ways to reduce the risk of liver cancer through diet, exercise and effective management of diabetes.

A new technique called tumor ablation proves successful for shrinking and, in some cases, destroying smaller liver tumors in patients who are not eligible for surgery, due to the tumors' location or other factors. In some patients, this strategy can prevent the need for major liver surgery. With this technique, a surgeon uses an imaging device to guide administration of an anticancer treatment directly to the tumor while the patient is sedated. Initially, physicians use a technique called alcohol ablation, in which an ethanol solution is injected directly into the tumor, dehydrating and killing the cancer cells. A decade later, a new technique called radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is introduced, in which heat and intense radiofrequency waves are used to attack the cancer. RFA has since become the standard of care in this setting.

Between the late 1970s and early 1990s, the number of new cases of liver cancer doubles in the United States, due in large part to growing prevalence of hepatitis C (HCV) – a virus only discovered in the late 1980s. Most of these cancers occur among individuals who were infected with HCV in the 1960s and 1970s. Many were infected through intravenous drug use, blood transfusions or other health care exposures before universal precautions and widespread blood screening were introduced in 1992. The disease is called a "silent epidemic" because it produces few signs or symptoms until serious liver damage has occurred. Today, it is estimated that at least half of liver cancers in the U.S. are related to HCV. If treated early, however, the infection is now considered curable.

Worldwide, HCV and liver cancer pose an even greater threat – particularly in areas with less developed health systems that are unable to screen for and treat the disease.

Investigators report the first use of the radioactive isotope Yttrium 90 (Y90) for the treatment of inoperable liver cancer, for which previously there were no treatment options.

For this therapy, the Y90 is chemically bound to a glass or resin bead called a microsphere. The microsphere is then implanted into the liver, providing radiation therapy directly to the nearby tumor and surrounding tissue with a goal of shrinking tumors or stalling their growth.

Today, treatment with Y90 is known to be particularly effective in certain patients, such as those with mild liver cirrhosis whose tumors invade nearby large blood vessels.

Researchers led by Dr. Baruch Blumberg first isolate the hepatitis B virus in blood. While the virus had long been suspected to have a role in liver cancer, it took several decades to conclusively establish the connection.