How is liver cancer spread? Know the three ways liver cancer spreads early

For people who have liver cancer patients at home, the possibility of getting the disease through exposure to certain carcinogens is much greater than genetic factors under common living conditions. In other words, although liver cancer is not hereditary, it has a certain family clustering tendency! Therefore, if there is a liver cancer patient at home, other family members must pay special attention to prevent liver cancer!

How liver cancer spreads

1. Vertical transmission of hepatitis B virus: Mothers who are infected with hepatitis B virus and become long-term virus carriers may transmit the virus to their newborns during or after delivery. Since the newborns' immune function is not yet fully developed, they cannot effectively eliminate the virus and form a persistent infection, resulting in chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and finally liver cancer.

2. Horizontal transmission of hepatitis B virus: Family members of hepatitis patients have extremely close contact. If one of them is infected with hepatitis B virus, it is easy to infect others without knowing it.

3. The eating habits and lifestyles of family members are basically the same, and everyone’s chances of being exposed to carcinogenic factors are basically the same.

There is another explanation for multiple people in a family getting cancer. The basic view is that any cancer is the result of two mutations in the genes of cells. For patients with sporadic non-familial cancer, these two changes occurred after birth. For cancer patients with a family tendency, they have been attacked by carcinogenic factors before their mothers became pregnant. When they are born, the cells in their bodies have already had a change that is prone to cancer. After birth, if they are hit by carcinogenic factors again, they may develop cancer, so the chance of getting cancer is greater than that of ordinary people. This is the famous "two-hit theory."

No matter which of the above explanations is true, it shows that liver cancer is mainly caused by external factors. Therefore, in a family where there is a liver cancer patient, other family members do not need to worry too much about the hereditary nature of liver cancer.