What Exactly Is Hepatitis
Hepatitis is simply inflammation of the liver, however inflammation can have several causes. Any agent or conditionsuch as medications, alcohol, fat, viruses, and autoimmunity can cause inflammation or injury to the liver cells can cause hepatitis. When we speak of hepatitis as a global health concern, however, we are primarily talking about viral hepatitis, meaning disease that is caused by one of several viruses. There are several types of viruses that cause hepatitis. The most common ones are hepatitis A, B, and C.
When an individual is infected with a hepatitis virus, he or she may develop such symptoms as fatigue, jaundice , and an enlarged liver. A doctor can detect liver inflammation using a blood test to look for liver enzymes that are elevated or by finding an enlarged liver on a physical exam or by ultrasound. It is also possible, she says, that a person will be infected with a hepatitis virus and not have any symptoms. In many cases an individuals immune system can clear the virus on its own, and patients will have antibodies in the blood as a marker of previous infection.
Early Vaccination Against Hepatitis B Can Prevent Liver Cancer
Once a person is infected with the hepatitis virus, they have an increased risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma. In fact, up to 80% of hepatocellular carcinoma cases worldwide are directly attributable to hepatitis B. Fortunately, there is a vaccine against hepatitis B, making the virus and its associated development of hepatocellular carcinoma preventable. Vaccination against hepatitis B prevents liver cancer and compliance with the hepatitis B vaccination series is achieved at a higher rate when infants receive their first vaccination within the first seven days of life.
In the United States, there has been a nationwide attempt to vaccinate all infants against hepatitis B. The vaccine involves a series of three doses. The preferred immunization schedule calls for the initial vaccination to be administered within the first seven days of life, the second dose at one to two months of age, and the third dose at six to eighteen months of age. Alternate schedules involve the administration of the initial dose at a later time in an infants life with appropriate waiting periods between subsequent doses.
Antiviral Therapy to treat patients with hepatitis reduces their risk of developing liver cancer.
References:
Functions Of The Liver
The liver is considered the largest internal organ. It has the ability to execute a wide variety of jobs and functions, such as changing food into energy and cleaning out poisons and alcohol from the blood.
- The liver is also responsible for making bile, which is a yellowish-green liquid that helps with digestion.
- The liver produces blood clotting factors and proteins that your body needs.
- The liver regulates glucose or sugar in your blood and stores additional sugar.
- The liver works with your intestines and stomach to easily and quickly digest food.
- The liver stores minerals and vitamins.
- The liver removes toxic or poisonous substances from your blood.
Also Check: Colloidal Silver And Hepatitis C
Does Ebv Cause Cancer
The Epstein Barr virus increases the risk of some cancer types. But, for most people that have the virus, it will not cause them any problems.
EBV is linked to Hodgkin lymphoma , Burkitt lymphoma and nasopharyngeal cancers.
Its not possible to predict who will develop EBV-linked cancer and who wont. But there are other important things you can do to reduce your risk of cancer, such as not smoking, keeping a healthy weight and cutting down on alcohol.
Who Is At Risk For Autoimmune Hepatitis
About 70 percent of people with autoimmune hepatitis are women, usually between the ages of 15 and 40. Many people with this disease also have other autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes, thyroiditis , ulcerative colitis , vitiligo , or Sjogrens syndrome .
Search for a Clinical Trial
Clinical trials are research studies that test how well new medical approaches work in people. Before an experimental treatment can be tested on human subjects in a clinical trial, it must have shown benefit in laboratory testing or animal research studies. The most promising treatments are then moved into clinical trials, with the goal of identifying new ways to safely and effectively prevent, screen for, diagnose, or treat a disease.
Speak with your doctor about the ongoing progress and results of these trials to get the most up-to-date information on new treatments. Participating in a clinical trial is a great way to contribute to curing, preventing and treating liver disease and its complications.
Start your search here to find clinical trials that need people like you.
Don’t Miss: How You Know If You Have Hepatitis
How Is It Diagnosed
First, your doctor will ask you to have some physical examinations and some blood tests.
In addition, he will also ask for ultrasound tests, computed tomography scans, magnetic resonance imaging , and angiograms.
You may also need to do a biopsy, in which a piece of liver tissue is removed and studied in the lab.
Reference:
Liver Cancer Causes Symptoms Diagnosis & Treatment Options
Hepatocellular carcinoma or liver cancer is a tumor that grows in the liver and usually takes months to start giving out symptoms. Unfortunately, once liver cancer starts causing problems, the patient is generally in an advanced stage of the disease. This type of cancer is usually very silent, which is why patients at risk should screen and stay in contact with their doctor.
In this article, were reviewing the most critical information about liver cancer. It is not meant to replace medical advice in any form. Quite the opposite, because you will get the appropriate tools to suspect liver cancer or recognize yourself as a part of the high-risk group, and if that is the case, we encourage you to look for medical help to rule out this ailment.
Don’t Miss: How Can You Catch Hepatitis B
Mental Confusion Or Disorientation
- Keep a list of your loved ones relevant information in case they cant remember it or tell it to you when/if it is needed
- Provide a diet high in fibre to reduce the absorption of ammonia, to decrease its build up in the brain. Read more about hepatic encephalopathy
- Help your loved one keep physically active to maintain brain health they can enjoy walking, swimming, gardening, stretching and other types of physical activity
How Can I Reduce My Risk Of Hiv
The best way to avoid HIV-linked cancers is to avoid HIV infection. But if you do have an HIV infection, anti-retroviral therapy can reduce both the effects of the infection and the risk of HIV-linked cancer. Since ART became available, cases of cancers linked to HIV have gone down.
Whether you are on ART or not, its really important to listen to your body and speak to a health professional if somethings not quite right. Spotting cancer at an early stage can make a real difference.
And remember, around 4 in 10 cancers in the UK could be prevented. Things like stopping smoking, cutting down on alcohol and staying safe in the sun can have a big impact on your cancer risk.
Recommended Reading: How Do You Get Tested For Hepatitis B
What About Hepatitis C Patients Who Have Been Successfully Treated
A person who develops cirrhosis due to hepatitis C is still at risk of liver cancer, even if the hepatitis C is treated successfully and the virus can no longer be detected in the bloodstream . Successful treatment of hepatitis C reduces the liver cancer risk by approximately 70%. However, the risk is not zero. Therefore, the person will still need liver cancer screening.
Hepatitis Delta Virus Infection
The hepatitis delta virus is a satellite virus that depends on HBV for generation of progeny virus and propagation. The HDV genome comprises a circular single-stranded RNA of around 1700 bases. The antigenomic open reading frame encodes the only viral protein, hepatitis delta antigen , that exists in two forms, the small- and the large-HDAg, and HDV particle assembly is dependent on the HBV envelope glycoprotein. Thus, HDV can only establish infection in the presence of HBV co-infection. HDV infects 1520 million subjects worldwide and causes the most severe form of viral hepatitis. Several studies have shown that chronic HDV co-infection leads to a more pronounced inflammation and severe liver disease than HBV mono-infection. In addition, HDV accelerates the course of progression to fibrosis and cirrhosis, and increases the risk for HCC development and early decompensation of cirrhosis . HDV accounts for almost half of all cases of cirrhosis and HCC in high-epidemic regions such as southeast Turkey, Italy or Mongolia. To date, no specific antiviral treatment is available for HDV.
Read Also: Do You Ever Get Rid Of Hepatitis C
Antiviral Treatment And Risk Of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Development
At the present time, there are no therapies to eliminate HBV infection. IFN can cure CHB in 315% of patients, but has severe side effects and is rarely used. Nucleoside analogues inhibit reverse transcription and limit HBV replication in more than 95% of treated patients and reduce liver inflammation, disease progression and HCC risk. However, these drugs have no effect on viral cccDNA or integrated copy numbers and require long-term administration. Current guidelines recommend antiviral treatment only when serum HBV-DNA levels are greater than 103 copies ml1 and significant inflammatory activity indicated by increased aminotransferase activity in blood or advanced fibrosis has been diagnosed.
It has, however, become clear that even the successful DAA therapies for CHC will not be able to eliminate the risk of HCC once high-grade fibrosis or cirrhosis has developed. DAA- and IFN-based regimens showed a considerably reduced, but still remaining risk for HCC after HCV cure and highlight the importance of surveillance once liver cirrhosis has developed irrespective of therapy responses . Nevertheless, in countries in which the new DAA therapies are accessible, high rates of SVR and eradication of HCV will have a huge impact on cirrhosis and also HCC incidence in the coming decade.
Are People With Liver Cancer Considered For Liver Transplantation
Most cancers of the liver begin elsewhere in the body and are spread to the liver. These cancers are not curable through liver transplantation. Tumours that start in the liver are usually detected in an advanced stage. They are also rarely cured by a liver transplant. If the primary liver cancer is small and confined to the liver, a liver transplant may be considered.
Recommended Reading: Where To Get Hepatitis Vaccine
What Is The Prognosis Of Liver Cancer What Are The Survival Rates For Liver Cancer
The prognosis for liver cancer depends on multiple factors such as the size of the liver cancer, the number of lesions, the presence of spread beyond the liver, the health of the surrounding liver tissue, and the general health of the patient. Life expectancy depends on many factors that impact whether a cancer is curable.
The American Cancer Society states the overall 5-year survival rate for all stages of liver cancer is 15%. One of the reasons for this low survival rate is that many people with liver cancer also have other underlying medical conditions such as cirrhosis. However, the 5-year survival rate can vary depending on how much the liver cancer has spread.
If the liver cancer is localized , the 5-year survival rate is 28%. If the liver cancer is regional , the 5-year survival rate is 7%. Once the liver cancer is distant , the survival time is as low as 2 years.
Survival rate can also be affected by the available treatments. Liver cancers that can be surgically removed have an improved 5-year survival rate of over 50%. When caught in the earliest stages, and the liver is transplanted, the 5-year survival rate can be as high as 70%.
Primary liver cancer deaths are usually from liver failure, bleeding, or advanced cancer.
Are Their Treatments For Secondary Liver Cancers
The liver is involved in approximately one-third of all cancers and often those that begin in the gastrointestinal tract, colon, pancreas, breast and lung. The risk factors involved in this type of liver cancer are numerous given that the cancers start elsewhere. The prognosis for people with secondary liver tumours depends on the primary site of malignancy. In general, people do not live longer than one year from the diagnosis of cancer spreading to the liver . Treatments for secondary liver cancers remain unsatisfactory but include surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and embolization.
You May Like: What Is Hepatitis A And How Do You Get It
Clinical Features Of Hepatitis B Virus
While in CHC HCC almost exclusively develops in liver cirrhosis, up to 20% of HBV-driven HCC cases occur in the absence of cirrhosis . The levels of HBV replication reflected by HBV-DNA serum titres, concomitant liver inflammation and necroinflammatory tissue damage have been confirmed as the most important predictors of disease progression and HCC development. The risk for HCC correlates with HBV viraemia . This was first described in the REVEAL-HBV study, where mortality increased with baseline HBV-DNA levels from 9 to 267 deaths due to chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, and 73816 deaths per 100 000 person-years due to HCC, respectively . Multivariate Cox regression analyses of risk factors predicting progression to mortality identified increasing HBV-DNA levels as the strongest independent predictor of death from chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, and this was second to cirrhosis in predicting death from HCC . This effect was specific because there was no association between serum HBV-DNA levels and non-liver-related mortality.
What Are The Treatments For Hepatocellular Carcinoma
The treatment of HCC depends on the extent of tumour spread , the speed of tumour growth, and the overall health condition of the person. Staging is often done by imaging of the body, including CT scans, MRIs, and bone scans. Small primary cancers of the liver are curable. Cure rates generally decrease as the tumour size increases. Treatment of liver cancer may involve surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy or liver transplantation.
Read Also: Human Hepatic Stellate Cell Line
A Role Of Hepatitis C Virus In Promoting A Pro
HCV is classified into seven genotypes and epidemiological studies show that infection with genotypes 1b and 3 is associated with an increased risk of developing HCC . Reports that HCV core gene variants are associated with HCC in patients who have resolved infection suggest that viral factors influence progressive liver disease. CHC is often associated with insulin-resistance , and the core protein has been shown to dysregulate glucose homeostasis, leading to intrahepatic lipid accumulation and steatosis . A recent study highlighted a new role for core to induce mitochondrial damage by impairing mitophagy the resulting oxidative stress is regarded as a key trigger of HCC initiation and development. In vivo studies with HCV core transgenic mice confirmed an imbalance of oxidant/antioxidant state in the liver-induced HCC .
HCC exhibits a high degree of genetic heterogeneity indicative of reduced genomic stability , and HCV induction of ROS is likely to prime DNA damage. Several studies report that HCV core or NS5A proteins increase ROS and promote oxidative stress in both mouse models and in vitro culture systems . Further studies report that HCV infection reduces host cells’ ability to detect and repair damaged DNA via perturbation of ATM kinase . The physiological relevance of these studies is difficult to prove where low-level expression of viral proteins in the infected liver precludes confirmatory studies.
Hepatitis C Virus Infection
Worldwide, 140 million infections with hepatitis C virus are estimated . The lack of proof-reading capacity of the HCV-encoded polymerase along with high replication rates results in a high mutation rate and genesis of a heterogeneous but closely related quasi-species . HCV is transmitted via parenteral routes, occurs in industrialized countries via intravenous drug abuse or by invasive sexual practices and is rarely transmitted from mother to child. Transmission has been limited by improving hygienic standards. In contrast with HBV, the risk of viral persistence and the development of chronic HCV infection in children are lower than those in adults. HCV has a very different prevalence depending on demographic factors: approximately 1.6% in the USA, less than 0.5% in Northern Europe and up to 3% in rural regions of Romania the most-affected regions are Central and East Asia and North Africa.
Read Also: What Is Hepatitis C Caused By
What Are The Symptoms And Complications Of Autoimmune Hepatitis
Often, the symptoms of autoimmune hepatitis are minor. When symptoms do occur, the most common are fatigue, abdominal discomfort, aching joints, itching, jaundice , enlarged liver, nausea and spider angiomas on the skin. Other symptoms may include dark urine, loss of appetite, pale stools and absence of menstruation. More severe complications can include ascites and mental confusion. In 10%-20% of cases, autoimmune hepatitis may present with symptoms like an acute hepatitis.
What You Can Do To Help Manage The Symptoms Of Liver Cancer
Symptom management is an important aspect of coping with liver cancer. When symptoms are properly addressed and managed, it can significantly strengthen the capability of your loved one and their overall quality of life. Below are common symptoms experienced by those with liver cancer and suggestions that caregivers can use to help manage these symptoms. Always consult with your healthcare provider before trying any of the following suggestions:
Also Check: How Is Hepatitis C Caused
Can Infections Like Ebv & Hiv Cause Cancer
- Some infections increase the risk of cancer, including EBV, HIV, hepatitis, and certain parasites
- In the UK, these infections are rare and cause very few cancer cases
- There are lots of other things you can do to reduce your cancer risk, including stopping smoking
On this page we cover some of the key infections linked to cancer: EBV, HIV, hepatitis, and certain parasites. We have separate pages with information on HPV and H. pylori infections.
There are other infections that can cause cancer, but these dont have a large impact in the UK.