Source: BBC Health; Cancer Research UK
Cancer, in general, has increased in prevalence due primarily to people living longer and advances in medical detection of cancer. Liver Cancer, however, is apparently among the most frequent primary cancer sites.
Why? Good question. As a population, we are fat (putting greater demand on the liver) and we drink too much (leading to cirrhosis). Oh and there’s that pesky Hepatitis C, a virus which is spread from blood to blood. The pesky thing being that the majority of carriers don’t know they have Hepatitis C.
Hepatitis B is also associated with liver cancer although no one actually knows the difference between Hep C and B. (I’m kidding about that last part of course. Type B is slightly more mild, may be transmitted from mother to infant and there’s a vaccine for that one).
At any rate the best advice seems to be stop eating and drinking so much and having unprotected sexual intercourse. Or at least try to avoid doing all three simultaneously. And as always, if you are concerned, see your doctor and get tested. A public service announcement, of a sort.
posted by David Marc Schwadron, Esq.