National Liver Cancer Roundtable 2026 - Australia

Liver cancer remains one of the Asia Pacific region's most under-addressed health burdens, a disease that, in many health systems, is still caught too late because the pathway around it is fragmented rather than built as one system.

In Australia, liver cancer is the 12th most commonly diagnosed cancer and the 6 th leading cause of cancer death. Liver cancer has a disproportionate impact on priority populations, including Australia’s First Nations people, people living in rural, regional and remote areas, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and people in custodial settings.

On 5 May 2026, the APAC Liver Disease Alliance had the privilege of co-hosting National Liver Cancer Roundtable with Cancer Australia, the Australian Government’s national cancer control agency, at Old Parliament House in Canberra, Australia. The event brought, together more than fifty stakeholders - clinicians, researchers, patient representatives, and officials from the Australian Government and state and territory health departments - to confront the challenges of liver cancer prevention and early detection together.

The Roundtable was co-chaired by Cancer Australia CEO Professor Dorothy Keefe and Professor Jacob George of the Storr Liver Centre, with an opening address from the Hon. Mark Butler MP, Minister for Health and Ageing. The day moved from an overview of Australia's liver cancer burden, through a showcase of initiatives already under way across the country, to an international perspective on emerging approaches. It closed with workshop- style sessions, where participants discussed key challenges and priority opportunities for action in liver cancer prevention and early detection.

For the APAC Liver Alliance, the Roundtable reflected a conviction that runs through its work across the region more broadly: reducing the burden of liver cancer depends on connecting prevention, risk identification and surveillance for those at high riskinto one coherent pathway, and on equity being built into that pathway from the start.

The Alliance is grateful to Cancer Australia for its leadership in convening this Roundtable, one more step in the region's collective push toward the WHO's 2030 elimination targets.

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