Table of contents:
- Causes of liver cancer (liver cancer)
- Risk factors for liver cancer that need to be watched out for
- 1. Cirrhosis
- 2. Increasing age
- 3. Smoking habits
- 4. Too much alcohol consumption
- 5. Lack of sleep
- 6. Type 2 diabetes
- 7. Inherited metabolic diseases
Liver cancer or liver cancer, including cancer that is rarer than other types of cancer. However, this disease is as dangerous as other types of cancer. Therefore, as much as possible avoid various causes and risk factors that can increase your potential for experiencing this disease. So what are the causes and risk factors for liver cancer? Check out the full explanation below.
Causes of liver cancer (liver cancer)
Basically, liver cancer or also known as hepatoma, occurs when the DNA of cells in the liver mutates. DNA in cells is responsible for giving instructions or orders to every chemical process that occurs in the body.
If there is a mutation in the DNA, it can cause changes to the instructions given. That way, the cells can turn out of control and form a tumor which later turns into cancer.
The cause of liver cancer can sometimes be known, for example, this cancer occurs due to chronic hepatitis infection. However, often times, liver cancer occurs for no apparent cause or reason. Therefore, it is not surprising that sometimes patients do not realize their condition because the body does not catch any signs or symptoms of liver cancer.
Even so, you can make efforts to prevent liver cancer by reducing the various risk factors you may have.
Risk factors for liver cancer that need to be watched out for
Some of the following conditions are things that can increase your potential for liver cancer or liver cancer. If you do not want these things to be the cause of your liver cancer, make efforts to reduce the following risks.
1. Cirrhosis
Cirrhosis is a disease that is often associated with liver cancer. Most cases of liver cancer already have some degree of cirrhosis. People with cirrhosis, the liver may have been damaged, so the risk of developing liver cancer is even greater.
There are many causes of cirrhosis, but the most common causes of one of these risk factors for liver cancer are alcohol abuse, or having chronic HBV and HCV infections.
Several types of autoimmune diseases, such as primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), which affects the liver can also cause cirrhosis. When you have PBC, your immune system attacks the bile ducts in the liver.
This causes the bile ducts to become damaged and can lead to cirrhosis. Advanced PBC has a high risk of causing liver cancer.
2. Increasing age
According to Cancer Research UK, as we get older, the potential for each individual to develop liver cancer or liver cancer is getting higher. Yes, although this disease can occur at a young age, the risk of people with older age is certainly higher than for people who are still young.
In fact, liver cancer patients are usually diagnosed with this condition when they are more than 60 years old. Even so, it does not mean that when you age you will definitely experience this condition. As long as you adopt a healthy lifestyle, the risk of increasing age being the cause of liver cancer can be lowered.
3. Smoking habits
If you have this unhealthy habit, now is the time to quit smoking. Why? The reason is, smoking is the cause of 20 out of 100 cases of liver cancer. This means that apart from being the cause of lung cancer, this habit can also cause other health problems in the body.
In addition, this habit will quickly become the cause of liver cancer when accompanied by the habit of consuming alcohol. Not only that, the risk will also be higher if you have hepatitis B or C.
4. Too much alcohol consumption
As previously mentioned, consuming too much alcohol can indeed increase your risk of developing liver cancer. Too much consumption of these drinks is also a cause of liver cirrhosis, another risk of liver cancer.
Not only that, the presence of alcohol in the body can also damage the DNA of cells in the liver. The more often you consume alcohol, the higher the risk of this habit being a cause of liver cancer.
5. Lack of sleep
When you stay up late or don't get enough sleep, over time your body's biological clock will change. In fact, the disturbance that occurs in the body's biological clock that occurs due to lack of sleep can cause genetic mutations.
As previously mentioned, genetic mutations or DNA mutations can trigger the proliferation of cells in the body to become cancerous. Therefore, if you have a habit of staying up late or not getting enough sleep, try to sleep on time from now on.
This is because sleeping too often late can be a factor in liver cancer.
6. Type 2 diabetes
People with type 2 diabetes tend to be overweight or obese which can lead to liver problems. This risk is even higher in people who have other risk factors such as excessive alcohol use or chronic viral hepatitis.
7. Inherited metabolic diseases
Family health history turned out to be one of the factors that cause liver cancer or liver cancer. For example, if someone in your family has hemochromatosis, a disease that causes your body to absorb too much iron from their diet.
Iron builds up in our body, including the liver. If too much of it is in the liver, it can lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer.
Other rare diseases that increase your risk of liver cancer include:
- Tyrosinemia.
- Alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency.
- Porphyria cutanea tarda.
- Glycogen storage disease.
- Wilson's disease.
If you have one of the risk factors mentioned above, it doesn't hurt to do early detection of liver cancer. The reason is, this disease usually does not show symptoms and is only known when the stage of liver cancer is already at a quite severe stage. If you are declared to have this disease, at least the doctor can help provide treatment for liver cancer.
