Early prevention and treatment to prevent liver cancer

  In an era of hepatitis B immunization and improved health care, liver cancer is still developing in an alarming trend – livercancer is one of the common malignant tumors in China with high mortality rate, ranking third after stomach cancer and esophageal cancer in the order of death from malignant tumors, and seriously threatening people’s life and health.  There are three reasons for the high incidence of liver cancer: 1. Very few individuals are tested for hepatitis B, resulting in two-thirds of individuals with hepatitis B not knowing that they are infected with HBV; 2. Only 20% of doctors follow liver cancer screening guidelines to detect the presence of liver cancer in high-risk hepatitis B patients. Due to the insidious onset of the disease, more than 80% of liver cancer patients are diagnosed at an intermediate to late stage, and it is too late for effective treatment; 3. Furthermore, liver cancer screening guidelines are inadequate and do not provide valuable blood tests to help identify liver cancer at an early and treatable stage.  In addition, moldy foods often contain high levels of aflatoxin. Aflatoxin B1, a metabolite of aflatoxin, has potent carcinogenic effects. And aflatoxin has a synergistic carcinogenic effect with HBV, and aflatoxin accumulation can be found in HBV-DNA-integrated hepatocytes.  In addition, the high content of carcinogens or former carcinogens such as nitrite and polycyclic aromatic compounds in cured, smoked and baked foods; nitrite itself is not carcinogenic, but under cooking or other conditions, it can react with amino acids to degrade and generate strong carcinogenic nitrosamines.