If my parents have liver cancer, will it be hereditary?

When seeing liver cancer patients, one of the questions often asked by their families is "Is liver cancer contagious or hereditary?" Family members and caregivers accompanying patients undergoing liver cancer surgery are even more worried and do not even dare to touch the patient's body. In real life, many people have similar concerns. So, if your parents have liver cancer, will it be hereditary? Let's find out.

Medically, liver cancer is divided into two categories: primary liver cancer and secondary liver cancer. They are completely different diseases and should not be confused. Primary liver cancer refers to tumors originating from the liver, that is, there are problems with the liver itself, and the root of the disease is in the liver. What we usually call liver cancer actually refers to primary liver cancer, among which hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common; secondary liver cancer is also called liver metastasis cancer, which refers to a malignant tumor whose primary lesion is outside the liver and tumor cells spread to the liver through the blood, lymph or directly. Before liver metastasis occurs, the liver itself may not have any problems, and the root of the disease is not in the liver. Various malignant tumors including colon cancer, gastric cancer, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, breast cancer, etc. can metastasize to the liver. In this article, I mainly explain the question of "whether primary liver cancer is contagious and hereditary."

According to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people suffering from primary liver cancer in my country accounts for more than half of the total number of cases in the world, with nearly 400,000 new cases of liver cancer each year, ranking fifth in incidence among malignant tumors and second in mortality. Since liver cancer has an insidious onset, most patients are already in the late stages when they are discovered. One of the reasons for the high incidence of liver cancer in my country is mainly due to the high infection rate of hepatitis B virus (HBV) in my country. If you have bad living habits on the basis of chronic hepatitis B infection, such as smoking and drinking, it is very easy to develop liver cancer. Therefore, I strongly recommend that people with high-risk factors (hepatitis B or hepatitis C virus infection, long-term drinking, smoking, severe fatty liver, family history of tumors, etc.) must be screened regularly so that tumors can be detected early.

So, is primary liver cancer contagious or hereditary?

In simple terms, the so-called infection is a disease that spreads from one person to another through some means. Influenza, measles, mumps, etc. are all infectious diseases. Infection must meet three conditions: the source of infection, the route of transmission, and the susceptible population. All three are indispensable. Current epidemiological survey data show that liver cancer patients themselves are not contagious. Otherwise, surgeons like me who have long-term contact with liver cancer patients would have a much higher probability of contracting liver cancer than the average person! In addition, hospitals do not need to take isolation measures for liver cancer patients, so it can be said with certainty that liver cancer is not an infectious disease.

Then, is the disease that causes liver cancer contagious? This is another question! As mentioned above, the high-risk population for primary liver cancer in my country is mainly patients with chronic liver disease caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Hepatitis B is one of the statutory Class B infectious diseases in my country. The main transmission routes are blood transfusion, mother-to-child transmission and sexual transmission. The body fluids of hepatitis B patients are contagious, including blood, saliva, breast milk, semen, digestive fluid, etc. Therefore, special attention should be paid when contacting patients with liver cancer and hepatitis B to avoid exposed skin or mucous membranes from contacting the body fluids of hepatitis B patients, especially when there are open wounds on the skin or mucous membranes. There is no risk of contracting hepatitis B when there is no blood exposure during daily study, work or life. In addition, people who often come into contact with liver cancer and hepatitis B, if there is no hepatitis B antibody in their blood, are recommended to get vaccinated with hepatitis B vaccine as soon as possible. I have already received several shots of hepatitis B vaccine.

Although liver cancer itself is not contagious, why do some families have more than two liver cancer patients at the same time? Is liver cancer hereditary? The worries that had just been relieved suddenly came back. Although modern medicine has been very developed, there are still many problems that have not been solved. Many malignant tumors, including liver cancer, are currently believed to have a certain genetic tendency.