Liver Cancer (Hepatocellular Carcinoma): Prevention

To prevent hepatocellular carcinoma (hepatocellular carcinoma/liver cancer), attention must be paid to reducing individual risk factors.

Behavioral risk factors

  • Diet
    • Too little fish consumption; inverse correlation between fish consumption and risk of disease.
    • Diets high in nitrates and nitrites, such as cured or smoked foods: Nitrate is a potentially toxic compound: Nitrate is reduced to nitrite in the body by bacteria (saliva/stomach). Nitrite is a reactive oxidant that reacts preferentially with hemoglobin, converting it to methemoglobin. Furthermore, nitrites (also contained in cured sausage and meat products and ripened cheese) form nitrosamines with secondary amines (contained in meat and sausage products, cheese and fish), which have genotoxic and mutagenic effects. Among other things, they promote the development of hepatocellular carcinoma. The daily intake of nitrate is usually about 70% from the consumption of vegetables (lamb’s lettuce, lettuce, green, white and Chinese cabbage, kohlrabi, spinach, radish, radish, beet), 20% from drinking water (nitrogen fertilizer) and 10% from meat and meat products and fish.
    • Consumption of food contaminated with aflatoxin.
  • Consumption of stimulants
    • Alcohol – (woman: > 40 g/day; man: > 60 g/day) (7.3-fold).
    • Tobacco (smoking) (1.4-fold)
    • Combined soft drinks, ie, containing sugar and sweeteners, >6 glasses per week; was positively correlated with risk for HCC
  • Intake of anabolic steroids
  • Overweight (BMI ≥ 25; obesity) (+ 80%); increase + 24%; metabolic disorders (2.8-fold).

Disease-related risk factors

Environmental pollution – intoxications

  • Ingestion of nitrosamines
  • Aflatoxin B (mold product) and other mycotoxins.
  • Carcinogens such as: Arsenic (latency period 15-20 years); chromium (VI) compounds.

Prevention factors

  • Regular coffee consumption reduces the risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma by more than half.
  • High versus low leisure-time physical activity is associated with a lower risk of liver cancer (-27%; HR 0.73, 95% CI 0.55-0.98).
  • For patients with preexisting liver disease and diabetes mellitus, statins have been shown to dramatically reduce the risk of HCC.
  • Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA).
    • Regular use of ASA (at least standard doses of 325 mg per week) was associated with a 49% reduced risk of HCC (adjusted hazard ratio 0.51; 0.34-0.77); a dose-response relationship was detectable
    • In patients with chronic HBV infection (hepatitis B virus infection), ASA use (maximum dose: 100 mg per day) for at least 90 days (median > 3 years) was significantly less likely to result in hepatocellular carcinoma than in the control group (5.2 vs. 7.87 percent (p < 0.001) [5.2 vs: 29 percent lower risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.71; 95% confidence interval: 0.58-0.86; p < 0.001).