Children can also get liver cancer, parents need to be vigilant

Children and even infants may also get liver cancer. The cause of primary liver cancer in children is not yet fully understood, but most cases have a background of hepatitis B infection. Its treatment is the same as that for adults. Surgical resection is still the first choice. If resection is not possible, hepatic artery embolization chemotherapy, radiotherapy, etc. are used according to the condition.

People generally believe that liver cancer occurs mostly in adults, especially in middle-aged and elderly people, and has nothing to do with children, especially infants. However, this is not the case at all.

The most common liver cancer in children is hepatoblastoma, which originates in the embryonic tissue of the liver and is more common in infants under 2 years old. The incidence rate in boys is 2.5 times that in girls. Hepatoblastoma develops very quickly and is usually very large when discovered. If not treated in time, the average survival time from onset to death is only about half a year. The severity of the disease is almost the same as that of adult liver cancer, so it is also called "infant liver cancer."

In addition, although hepatocellular carcinoma is more common in adults, it has been found in recent years that the incidence of primary liver cancer in children has been increasing, with an average age of onset of about 10 years old. Because there are no special symptoms in the early stage, few children can be discovered in the early stage, so childhood liver cancer has the characteristics of "rapid onset, late stage, high misdiagnosis rate, and short course of disease."

The cause of primary liver cancer in children is not yet fully understood, but most cases have a background of hepatitis B infection. Its treatment is the same as that for adults, with surgical resection still the first choice. If resection is not possible, hepatic artery embolization chemotherapy, radiotherapy, etc. are used according to the condition.