Trials and papersHepatocellular carcinoma

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.

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.

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.

Pancreatic cancer's share of cancer deaths rises because it is standing still while others improve; the 2014 projection to 2030 already made it the second cause of cancer death in the UK's peer countries, and this is the funding argument charities on both sides of the Atlantic use.

Patients with advanced liver cancer and good liver function should be offered atezolizumab plus bevacizumab (or durvalumab plus tremelimumab) rather than sorafenib as first treatment; median survival is now around 19 months and about a quarter of patients respond. Endoscopy to treat varices before starting bevacizumab is essential because of bleeding risk. Patients with poorer liver function (Child-Pugh B) or autoimmune disease or transplants were not studied.

CONCORD is the evidence base for national cancer plans and for the statement that where you live changes your chance of surviving cancer. Its country tables are the benchmark health systems use to judge early diagnosis and treatment access.

China accounts for roughly a quarter of the world's cancer cases, and this paper is the reference that made its burden legible internationally. It explains why Chinese trial programmes and drug pipelines concentrate on lung, stomach, oesophageal and liver cancers.

Maintaining a healthy weight is now established cancer prevention for over a dozen cancer types. For clinicians and policymakers, obesity belongs alongside tobacco and alcohol in prevention strategy. Whether intentional weight loss in adulthood reverses risk is still being studied, including in trials of GLP-1 drugs.