Chapter 3: The Real Risk Factors Behind Liver Cancer
One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding liver cancer is that it is primarily caused by something a person ate recently.
In reality, many liver cancers develop against a background of long-standing liver injury.
Chronic hepatitis B and hepatitis C infections are major causes of liver cancer worldwide. Over many years, persistent inflammation can damage liver cells and increase the likelihood of genetic changes that contribute to cancer development.
Cirrhosis is another major risk factor. Cirrhosis occurs when repeated or prolonged liver injury produces extensive scar tissue. Alcohol-related liver disease, chronic viral hepatitis, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, and several other conditions can eventually contribute to cirrhosis.
Excess body weight, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic dysfunction can also increase the risk of liver disease.
Alcohol is another important factor. Regular heavy alcohol consumption can cause fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, fibrosis, and eventually cirrhosis.
There are also environmental and dietary risks. Aflatoxin exposure is one of the best-established examples of a food-related carcinogenic risk to the liver. It is particularly important in areas where food-storage conditions allow certain molds to grow.
The key message is that liver cancer is usually the result of a complicated combination of biological, infectious, metabolic, environmental, and lifestyle factors.
Therefore, someone who develops liver cancer should not automatically blame a single food.
The claim that a person was “healthy” simply because they exercised or ate vegetables also does not tell the whole medical story. A person can appear healthy while having an undiagnosed infection, fatty liver disease, genetic risk, or another underlying condition.