Current Status of Research on Liver Cancer in Korea

ABSTRACT

Liver cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death in Korea. Liver cancer imposes a considerable societal burden due to its high incidence and high mortality rate in younger patients, as compared to other cancers. However, interest in liver cancer among researchers and health-policy makers is low. In this review, recent trends in the number of published articles on liver cancer in Korea and internationally were analyzed. The key finding is that the rate of growth in the number of published articles on liver cancer is slowly decreasing and financial investment for research into liver cancer is very limited, despite the increasing research and development investment budget in Korea. Meanwhile, the rate of growth of research into liver cancer in China has recently increased markedly. Therefore, the scale and rate of growth of research into liver cancer in Korea should be enhanced.