Precision prevention of liver cancer based on risk factors

Primary liver cancer, particularly hepatocellular carcinoma, remains a major global health challenge due to its multifactorial etiology, late-stage detection, and high mortality. This review proposes a precision prevention framework that (i) categorizes risk factors into biological (e.g., HBV/HCV, aflatoxins), environmental (e.g., air pollution, occupational/waterborne toxins), and host-related domains (e.g., obesity, diabetes, genetic susceptibility); and (ii) aligns interventions to three complementary strategies: elimination of dominant risk (HBV vaccination, aflatoxin control, alcohol/tobacco reduction), early warning and targeted management (life-course immunization, MAFLD screening and control, metformin in diabetics), and chemoprevention (e.g., oltipraz, chlorophyllin, sulforaphane). We further articulate “green” prevention as a scalable, diet-centered approach that can be tailored to risk tiers and local food systems. Advances in multi-omics, microbiome science, and AI-enabled risk models—together with cohort evidence from East Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Western populations—support stratified surveillance and earlier interventions. Finally, we discuss generalizability and implementation challenges (regional dietary diversity, resource access) and outline pragmatic solutions to improve uptake across diverse settings.