Background: Liver cancer remains a persistent global health challenge due to its high occurrence and fatality rates, critically impacting health outcomes and quality of life. The disease burden in East Asia, considering China, Japan, South Korea, and Mongolia, is among the highest globally. This study aims to examine the patterns and trends of liver cancer in selected East Asian countries from 1990 to 2021. Methods: This study employed data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 pertaining to key burden metrics—prevalence, incidence, mortality, years of life lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs)—for selected East Asian countries from 1990 to 2021. Furthermore, the epidemiological trends and patterns were analyzed using decomposition analysis, Joinpoint regression, and age–period–cohort methods. Projections of the cancer burden through 2036 were generated using the Bayesian age–period–cohort model. Results: For all key indicators (incidence, prevalence, mortality, YLDs, YLLs, and DALYs), China had the highest values in both 1990 and 2021. The highest age-standardized rates for incidence (ASIR), mortality (ASMR), prevalence (ASPR), YLDs, YLLs, and DALYs (ASDR) were recorded in Mongolia. For all measured indicators of disease burden, the peak rates in each of the selected East Asian nations were consistently concentrated in the population aged 50 and above. Mongolia is forecasted to maintain the top-ranking ASIR values among the selected East Asian nations considered up to 2036. Conclusions: Over the past three decades, liver cancer has imposed a heavy disease burden on all selected East Asian nations, with rates being notably higher in the elderly population. These insights will provide policy-makers with evidence to guide public health strategies for disease prevention.
Guo et al. (Thu,) studied this question.