Two common causes of liver cancer and three measures to prevent liver cancer

Nowadays, many people will find out that they have cancer in an inadvertent examination, and liver cancer is a type of cancer with a high mortality rate. We should try to stay away from these diseases. If we want to stay away from the troubles of this disease, we must first understand it. So, let's take a look at the common causes of liver cancer introduced by experts.

Common causes of liver cancer

1. Dietary factors: Usually, the occurrence of liver cancer is closely related to the patient's usual living habits. Long-term consumption of moldy food, food containing nitrosamines, and lack of trace element selenium are important causes of liver cancer. Aflatoxin B1 is a substance that has been proven to have a clear carcinogenic effect. It is mainly found in moldy food, such as corn, peanuts, rice, etc. In addition, when a large amount of food containing nitrite is consumed, nitrite accumulates in the body and cannot be discharged in time, and can be converted into nitrosamines in the body. Foods with high nitrite content are mainly smoked or salted meat products, which have a clear carcinogenic effect. At the same time, the cause of liver cancer is also related to genetic factors, parasitic infections and other factors.

2. Viral hepatitis: According to epidemiological statistics, areas where hepatitis B is prevalent are often also high-incidence areas for liver cancer. People who have had hepatitis B are 10 times more likely to develop liver cancer than those who have not. Long-term clinical observations have found that hepatitis, cirrhosis, and liver cancer are a trilogy of continuous migration and evolution. Recent studies have shown that viral hepatitis related to the cause of liver cancer mainly includes hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (BCV), among which hepatitis B is the most common. This is also an important cause of liver cancer.

Measures to prevent liver cancer

1. Water management: Experts say that in high-incidence areas of liver cancer in my country, residents who drink ditch and pond water have the highest liver cancer mortality rate, followed by those who drink river water, and those who drink deep well water have the lowest. It is obvious that drinking water pollution is related to liver cancer mortality.

In recent years, due to the progress of water quality analysis technology, more than 100 kinds of organic substances in water have been found to be carcinogenic, cancer-promoting and mutagenic. At present, it has been confirmed in animal experiments that adding the following compounds to drinking water: such as carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethane, etc. can cause liver cancer. In addition, some freshwater algae toxins, such as blue-green algae, have been found to have obvious liver cancer-promoting effects.

Although the real carcinogens or promoters in water have not yet been identified, water improvement has brought about clear signs of a reduction in liver cancer mortality. In rural areas, drinking water improvement can include turning "stagnant water" into living water, that is, changing from drinking pond water or house ditch water (stagnant water in ponds around houses) to drinking well water, deep well water, or building small water plants. In cities, measures are taken to use less polluted water sources as tap water, prevent pollution of drinking water sources, and use water purifiers.

2. Control food: Moldy food contains aflatoxin, which can induce liver cancer. It is reported that aflatoxin is produced by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Under suitable temperature and humidity conditions, this mold will multiply and produce toxins.

Generally speaking, this kind of mold is easy to contaminate crops such as peanuts and corn. There are many components of aflatoxin, among which aflatoxin B1 has the strongest carcinogenic effect. After aflatoxin B1 is metabolized by the liver in the body, it will form more toxic oxidative intermediates, which will combine with DNA, an important genetic material in the human body, and change the structure of DNA. During the process of DNA replication and cell division, liver cells are prone to malignant transformation and form cancer cells.

In daily life, people often encounter some foods with musty smell and accompanied by yellow, blue spots or fine hairs, which are the characteristics of food mold. Moldy food not only has reduced nutritional value, but also often contains mycotoxins, which are not afraid of high temperatures and cannot be destroyed by ordinary food processing methods such as frying, stir-frying, boiling, steaming and deep-frying.

The main measure to prevent food from going moldy at home is to keep the food below the safe moisture line as much as possible. The food should be placed in a cool, ventilated and dry place, and should not be placed on the floor or against the wall to avoid moisture and mold. If the rice or flour is damp or moldy, it should be discarded.

3. Hepatitis prevention: Viral hepatitis is related to liver cancer, including type B, type C and type D. About 90% of liver cancer patients in my country have a background of hepatitis B (HBV). Among liver cancer patients hospitalized in Zhongshan Hospital of Shanghai Medical University alone, the positive rate of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) is 69.1%. There are currently 120 million HBsAg carriers in my country (those with positive HBsAg in blood tests but no symptoms of hepatitis). Every year, about 1 million newborns are infected with HBV because their mothers are carriers. Some of them develop chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis, and eventually liver cancer, so hepatitis should be actively prevented and treated.