Zhongshan Hospital in Shanghai, China's largest metropolis, has taken the lead both domestically and internationally in treating liver cancer, a major cause of death in the world.

One octogenarian, surnamed Yang, has been cancer-free for 38 full years after receiving treatment at the Shanghai hospital, setting a world record.

Over the past three decades, the hospital has enabled 368 liver cancer patients to survive for over five years. Of those, 112 have lived for more than 10 years.

The rising survival rate is attributable to a series of major achievements made in diagnosing and treating the disease at the hospital.

During the mid 1970s, doctors at the Zhongshan Hospital have worked hard and greatly improved the curative effect on liver cancer by trying to diagnose and treat it in its early stages. Since 1995, they have created a comprehensive therapy that combines surgery, and freezing, micro and ultrasonic wave techniques as well as the use of traditional Chinese medicine.

Experts referred to this development as a breakthrough, and liver cancer patients from a growing number of countries such as Japan, Indonesia and Thailand have traveled to the hospital to consult the doctors there.

China has a fairly high incidence of liver cancer, with 430,000cases reported each year, or 45 percent of the world's total.