From the Editor’s desk...: December 2015

Selection of the monthNear eradication of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in Taiwanese childrenHung et al. used the Taiwan Cancer Registry to investigate the incidence patterns of HCC diagnosed between 2003 and 2011 among age groups in Taiwan, 30 years after a universal HBV immunization program was launched. They found that HCC is predominantly diagnosed in middle-aged adults (50.1%) and elderly people (49.1%), in contrast to the low incidences in children (0.04%) and adolescents and young adults (0.8%). They conclude that “in Taiwan, HBV-related HCC is nearly eradicated in children in 2011. The findings on age-specific incidence patterns and trends of hepatocellular carcinoma suggest that different control strategies for treating this devastating disease in the future be made according to age”.