Is liver cancer contagious? Check out some causes of liver cancer

Primary liver cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in my country. In recent years, its incidence has been slowly increasing, and its mortality rate has also increased. More and more people are afraid of it and are also wondering whether liver cancer is contagious.

Is liver cancer contagious?

1. Liver cancer is not contagious. According to surveys, liver disease is very common in my country, especially hepatitis. However, if hepatitis is not controlled, it may worsen and develop into cirrhosis or even liver cancer.

2. Some liver cancer patients may experience jaundice, which will make people around them feel nervous and worried about being infected. In fact, these worries are unnecessary, because jaundice in liver cancer patients is mostly caused by damaged liver function or compression of the bile duct, not acute icteric hepatitis, and is not contagious.

3. Among the factors causing liver cancer, some people have proposed a "viral theory", which believes that the nucleic acids of certain viruses are carcinogenic, and that viruses and their nucleic acids are contagious between animals, and therefore believe that cancer may also be contagious. However, as of now, although hepatitis virus particles have been found in liver cancer tissues of animals and humans, it cannot be finally confirmed that this is the only factor causing liver cancer. To put it another way, even if liver cancer is caused by viruses, the virus is only an external factor. It cannot cause liver cancer in people without internal factors in the human body.

4. In cancer sanatoriums, there are patients with different types of cancer, including liver cancer. They live together for a long time, and no cases of mutual infection have been found. Doctors and nurses in cancer hospitals have long-term contact with cancer patients, and their cancer incidence rate is not higher than that of the general population. In addition, doctors in tumor surgery departments have often had their fingers pierced by needles when performing surgery on liver cancer patients, but there has never been any report of cancer caused by this.

What are the causes of liver cancer?

The cause of primary liver cancer has not been fully elucidated so far, but it has been shown to be closely related to the following factors:

1. Viral hepatitis: Long-term clinical observations have shown that hepatitis, cirrhosis, and liver cancer are a trilogy of continuous evolution. Recent studies have shown that viral hepatitis associated with liver cancer mainly includes hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (BCV), among which hepatitis B is the most common.

2. Alcohol: Long-term alcoholism is prone to liver cancer. This is because after alcohol enters the human body, it is mainly decomposed and metabolized in the liver. The toxicity of alcohol to liver cells causes liver cells to have obstacles in the decomposition and metabolism of fatty acids, causing fat deposition in the liver and resulting in fatty liver. The more alcohol is consumed, the more severe the fatty liver becomes, which in turn causes liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, and liver cancer. If hepatitis patients drink heavily, it will greatly accelerate and aggravate the formation and development of cirrhosis and promote the occurrence of liver cancer.

3. Diet-related factors: 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 smoked or salted meat products, which have a clear carcinogenic effect. At the same time, the occurrence of liver cancer is also related to genetic factors, parasitic infections and other factors.