Is liver cancer hereditary?

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in the world, with about 500,000 new cases of HCC every year. my country is a high-incidence area for HCC, with the largest number of cases in the world. HCC has an insidious onset, a short course, high malignancy, and a poor prognosis. Its morbidity and mortality rates are close, and the mortality rate is extremely high, so it has the notoriety of "the king of cancer".

Since there is no good treatment for liver cancer, people feel threatened by death when they talk about liver cancer. Is liver cancer hereditary? If there is a history of liver cancer in the ancestors of the family, will the descendants also suffer from liver cancer? What is the probability of cancer?

Liver cancer is a hereditary disease, which has been recognized by the medical community and confirmed at the genetic level. However, its occurrence is the result of the combined effects of genetic and environmental factors. Genetics determines individual genetic susceptibility, while environmental factors determine what kind of susceptible individuals will develop cancer.

The most obvious clinical feature of genetic susceptibility to liver cancer is family history, that is, if there are multiple liver cancer patients in several generations of the same family, the family's chance of suffering from liver cancer is higher than that of an ordinary family. Many research results have shown the existence of genetic factors in the occurrence of liver cancer. With the increase in the number of liver cancer patients in the family and the younger age of onset, the genetic susceptibility to liver cancer has also increased. In families with a high incidence of liver cancer, first-degree relatives are at high risk of liver cancer. In recent years, the clinical identification of this family clustering phenomenon has received attention from medical departments at all levels. Because before the genetic basis of liver cancer has been fully elucidated, a family history of liver cancer can be used as an indicator of genetic susceptibility; it also helps to clarify the cause of liver cancer, clinical treatment, genetic counseling, and identification of liver cancer-related genes.

However, we should also realize that the occurrence of liver cancer is a complex multi-stage process with multiple genes and multiple pathways, and its family clustering may also be a probabilistic event, not an absolute event. In other words, if one of your ancestors was a liver cancer patient, you may not be one, but it just means that you are more likely to get the disease than the normal population. Environmental and other risk factors such as hepatitis virus infection (type B and type C), intake of aflatoxin in food, long-term excessive drinking and overwork are also important causes of liver cancer, and are very important initiating factors. Genetic epidemiological surveys on liver cancer have shown that in families with a high incidence of liver cancer, the incidence of liver cancer in cohabiting relatives exceeds that in non-cohabiting relatives. The cancer rate of offspring whose fathers have liver cancer is 29.3%, while the cancer rate of offspring whose mothers have liver cancer is 41.7%. Among first-degree relatives, the risk of cancer is higher among siblings. All these indicate the existence of environmental risk factors in the development of liver cancer, and their role cannot be ignored.

It can be seen that liver cancer is a genetic disease, but not a pure genetic disease. It must interact with environmental and other related factors to occur. Therefore, for those whose ancestors have a history of liver cancer, there is no need to worry about it and increase their mental burden. Heredity is unchangeable, but acquired influences can be changed. Improve the quality of life, improve living standards, maintain an optimistic attitude, stable emotions, do not smoke, drink less, pay attention to dietary norms, rest well, get enough sleep, do more exercise, and go to the hospital for regular check-ups under economic conditions. I believe that even if liver cancer is a genetic disease, we can still get a healthy liver.