Can advanced liver cancer infect children?

Many netizens have this question, especially those with liver cancer patients in their families, wondering if liver cancer is contagious in the late stage. The editor consulted liver disease experts and clearly told netizens and family members of liver cancer patients not to worry, as there is no evidence to prove that liver cancer can be transmitted. It can be said with certainty that liver cancer is not contagious.

Liver cancer transmission lacks necessary conditions

If liver cancer is contagious, the so-called contagion, in simple terms, is the transmission of a disease from one person to another through some means. Contagion must meet three conditions: the source of infection, the route of transmission and the susceptible population, all three are indispensable. Clinical data prove that cancer patients themselves are not the source of infection. Experts have conducted such an experiment, where cancer tissue removed from cancer patients was directly implanted in another person, and it could not survive and grow. Although it is currently believed that the occurrence of certain cancers is related to certain viruses, such as cervical cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer, and leukemia, it has not yet been confirmed that infection with certain viruses will definitely lead to certain cancers.

Moreover, cancer is not currently classified as an infectious disease in the world, and patients are not isolated as they would be for infectious diseases. The incidence of cancer among medical staff in cancer hospitals is not higher than that of the general population. Animal experiments have also proven that when cancer-stricken animals and healthy animals are kept together for a long time, no infection is found after repeated observation and examination.

The metastatic nature of liver cancer does not cause infection

Any cancer will metastasize to other organs in the late stage and cause the organ failure and gradually lead to death. Liver cancer is no exception, but late-stage liver cancer is life-threatening before metastasis to other adjacent organs occurs, mainly because more than 85% of liver cancers originate in the liver with cirrhosis.

Therefore, in the late stage, liver cancer not only invades normal liver cells, causing liver failure of existing cirrhosis, such as jaundice, ascites, and hepatic encephalopathy (hepatic coma), but may even lead to certain fatal complications, such as esophageal varicose veins rupture and bleed, and cause liver failure and death.

Although the condition of patients with advanced liver cancer is very miserable, if the patient is a carrier of hepatitis B virus, the virus infection rate is not higher than that of other chronic hepatitis. However, at this time, the positive rate of surface antigen is lower than that of other liver diseases.

If your family or friends are diagnosed with cancer, don’t worry about spreading the disease. Instead, spend more time with them and give them warmth and love. This will help the patient recover soon.