From virus to cancer: why hepatitis elimination must be part of cancer control

Charissa Feng, Senior Manager of Cancer Council Victoria’s Liver Cancer Program, reflects on efforts to bring the hepatitis and cancer sectors together – and why preventing liver cancer requires us to look beyond the traditional boundaries between communicable and non-communicable disease. 

Liver cancer is the fastest-rising cause of cancer-related death globally despite being preventable, with over half of all liver cancer cases linked to viral hepatitis.

Viral hepatitis is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), placing it in the same category as tobacco and asbestos. Yet hepatitis is still too often treated only as an infectious disease issue, rather than as a central part of cancer prevention.

There is a vaccine that can prevent hepatitis B, treatments that can greatly reduce the harm caused by chronic hepatitis B, and medicines that can cure hepatitis C. Yet according to the World Health Organization, there are 304 million people living with chronic viral hepatitis B and C worldwide, and 1.3 million people died from the infection in 2022.

Two sectors, one shared outcome

When I began working more closely with hepatitis experts and communities affected by hepatitis-related liver cancer, I was struck by how rarely the hepatitis and cancer sectors came together.

Both sectors ultimately want the same thing: fewer people developing liver cancer and fewer families losing someone to a disease that could have been prevented or detected earlier. But they often use different language, attend different conferences, work through different policy structures, and draw upon different funding streams.

People, of course, do not experience their health in sectors. Someone living with hepatitis B does not move neatly from an infectious disease system into a cancer system when their risk changes. They need one connected pathway – from testing and treatment through to regular liver monitoring, cancer surveillance, early diagnosis, and care.

Our advocacy at Cancer Council Victoria has therefore focused on making the link between hepatitis and cancer much more visible.

We have worked with hepatitis specialists, cancer clinicians, researchers, community organisations, and people with lived experience to frame viral hepatitis clearly as a cancer-prevention issue. We have brought the evidence to policymakers, medical colleges, cancer leaders, and the media, and used cancer data to show both the scale of hepatitis-related liver cancer and its disproportionate impact on migrant communities.

This work has helped embed hepatitis elimination within the Victorian Cancer Plan 2024–2028 and strengthened recognition of viral hepatitis as a driver of liver cancer in cancer reporting. We are also advocating for hepatitis testing, treatment and liver cancer surveillance to be considered within broader cancer-control systems and national prevention efforts.

A changing global policy landscape

Encouragingly, this connection is also beginning to appear in global policy.

The United Nations Political Declaration on Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health includes hepatitis elimination within the global response. This matters because it recognises that preventing cancer cannot be separated from addressing the infections that cause it.

But inclusion in a declaration is only the beginning. The next challenge is translating that recognition into practical action: policies, funding, workforce development, data systems, and care pathways that join hepatitis elimination with cancer prevention and early detection.

Cancer organisations have an important role to play. They already have expertise in prevention campaigns, screening, health-system advocacy, cancer registries, community engagement, and addressing inequities. These capabilities can create new entry points for finding people at risk, connecting them with care and ensuring that those at higher risk receive appropriate liver cancer surveillance.

One way we are helping bridge the divide is by deliberately bringing hepatitis into spaces where cancer leaders gather.

At World Cancer Congress 2024 and World Cancer Leaders’ Summit 2025, we led panel discussions that brought together cancer and hepatitis perspectives to explore jurisdictions, such as Egypt and Taiwan, that have successfully reduced the burden of liver cancer through joining up both sectors and goals – eliminating hepatitis, and building cancer surveillance and treatment capabilities. 

These conversations show cancer leaders globally that progress becomes possible when the infectious disease and cancer sectors stop seeing hepatitis-related liver cancer as belonging primarily to the other.

Turning advocacy into action at a local level

Policy advocacy must ultimately change what happens in communities and health services.

In Victoria, we are complementing this systems-work with a hepatitis B micro-elimination programme in multicultural communities where many people are living with chronic hepatitis B but are not receiving regular care. The programme combines community education and bicultural navigation with stronger primary-care pathways, workforce development and support for general practices.

This local work and our broader advocacy are closely connected. Community programmes show us where systems are failing people. Advocacy helps us address those barriers at scale. Global forums allow us to exchange lessons and build momentum beyond our own jurisdiction.

My hope is that hepatitis will eventually be seen as an unremarkable and essential part of cancer control – not an additional issue that cancer organisations are being asked to take on, but one of the clearest opportunities we have to prevent cancer.