3 out of 5 liver cancers are preventable, new study discovers; cases could double in 25 years

Sixty percent of the 700,000 people who die each year from liver cancer could be prevented, reports a new study published in the journal Lancet.

That comprehensive research, according to a recent story by Nina Agrawal in The New York Times, finds that "prevention could be accomplished by addressing the disease's major causes: hepatitis B, hepatitis C, alcohol-associated liver disease, and liver disease linked to metabolic risk factors like obesity."

Dr. Brian P. Lee

The Times article quotes Dr. Brian P. Lee, an associate professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, who was not involved in the study, to the effect that "liver cancer is common, it causes immense suffering and death, and the saddest part for me as a physician is that most of the cases are preventable."

Liver cancer is the sixth most common cancer and the third leading cause of death each year from cancer. There are nearly 900,000 new annual cases globally, Agrawal's piece indicates.

The story also quotes Dr. Ahmed Kaseb, a professor of gastrointestinal medical oncology at the University of University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, who also wasn't associated with the study, as suggesting that the threat of liver cancer from heavy alcohol use and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, or MASLD, formerly known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, "has been under-recognized and underestimated." 

Dr., Hashem El-Serag, chair of the department of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas and one of the authors of the new study, maintains that a vast majority of liver cancers arise in people with cirrhosis, advanced and largely irreversible scarring of the liver, which is definitively linked to heavy  alcohol consumption.

More information on the variety of cancers can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten aimed at male caregivers. My other books are MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of my newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that I co-authored with my then 8-year-old granddaughter. Check out my website at https://woodyweingarten.com for details.