my country is a big country with liver disease.
When it comes to liver disease, many people talk about liver discoloration, worry about liver disease infection, worry about liver cirrhosis, and worry about liver cancer.
In terms of the etiology of liver disease, it includes viral hepatitis, alcoholic liver disease, drug-induced liver disease, fatty liver disease, autoimmune liver disease, genetic metabolic liver disease, and more.
Clinically, any chronic liver disease that can cause repeated abnormal liver function can cause liver cirrhosis. Once the liver cirrhosis occurs, regardless of the cause, there is a certain risk of cancer. Because liver cirrhosis is also a kind of precancerous lesions, patients with liver cirrhosis, especially nodular cirrhosis, have a higher chance of liver cancer due to the occurrence of ischemia and hypoxia.
About 80% of people with liver cancer have a history of chronic liver disease. Generally speaking, if patients with chronic hepatitis are not treated in time, many patients will indeed develop the trilogy of hepatitis-cirrhosis-hepatocellular carcinoma. However, in clinical practice, there are also a small number of patients who have developed liver cancer directly from the hepatitis stage without liver cirrhosis.
Typical case:
Lao Li is 40 years old this year. He has chronic hepatitis B before. Because he has no special symptoms, he has not taken it seriously. He has neither regular physical examination nor knowledge about chronic liver disease. , but busy doing business, socializing, staying up late, tired can be said to be commonplace.
20 days ago, Lao Li felt a little tired and could not relieve himself by resting, so he thought of going to the hospital for an examination. After Lao Li was hospitalized, he underwent a series of tests related to liver disease. The patient has five major three yang of hepatitis B, DNA 5 power, mild abnormality of liver function transaminase, and normal alpha-fetoprotein. If the inspection ends here, it may cause serious missed diagnosis. B-ultrasound was performed on the patient, and it was found that the surface of the liver was relatively smooth, but the liver volume increased significantly, and a huge space-occupying mass was found, so an enhanced CT examination was performed. The results of contrast-enhanced CT showed that it was a massive intrahepatic liver cancer. The diameter is close to 15cm.
Because of the huge mass, it can be said that there is no good way.
Many people will ask, isn’t it the hepatitis-cirrhosis-liver cancer trilogy? How did this go directly from hepatitis to liver cancer? How to avoid this phenomenon in patients with chronic hepatitis?
We know that risk factors for liver cancer include:
1. Gender: males are higher than females, about 3:1;
2. Age: The high incidence age is 45-55 years old;
3. History of drinking: alcoholics are significantly higher than non-drinkers;
4. Intake of carcinogens: aflatoxin (mold food), nitrite (preserved food);
5. Co-infection with hepatitis B/C virus;
6. Persistent inflammatory activity in the liver;
7. Sustained high levels of virus;
8. Negative emotions, family history of liver cancer, etc.
It can be said that the more risk factors for liver cancer, the greater the risk of developing liver cancer.
If you are in these groups, you must be screened for liver cancer as soon as possible:
1. Combined with chronic hepatitis B/C virus infection;
2. Long-term alcoholism;
3. Combined with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis;
4. Eating moldy food (contaminated with aflatoxin);
5. People with liver cirrhosis caused by various reasons and with a family history of liver cancer;
6, especially men over 40 years old.
How can patients with chronic liver disease prevent the occurrence of liver cancer?
1. Rational drug use and regular review. Many people are reluctant to re-examine, thinking that it is a waste of money. The significance of re-examination is to screen for liver cancer. The earlier liver cancer is detected, the better the treatment effect and prognosis.
2. Strictly abstain from alcohol. Long-term drinking can cause liver cirrhosis and liver cancer itself. If combined with hepatitis B/C virus infection, the risk of cancer will be greater.
3, pay attention to rest, do not overwork. Liver disease patients need to know “three-point governance and seven-point nourishment”, and not to be overly fatigued, so as not to reduce the body’s immunity and induce the occurrence of liver cancer.
4. Manage emotions and avoid pessimistic, indulgent, and too absolute bad emotions. Some people refuse antiviral treatment when they hear that they need to take medicine for a long time; some people refuse to take antiviral treatment after reading the drug instructions for patients with liver damage; Keeping the current state of the liver in good condition may lead to losing the opportunity to apply new drugs in the future. Some people see that others are in stable condition without taking medicines and think that they can do the same, and refuse to use drugs for treatment; these are not advisable. Whether liver disease needs treatment or not should be determined by the specialist, not the patient himself.