Alcohol and hepatocellular carcinoma: A review and a point of view

Abstract

It is well recognized that one cause of chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is alcohol consumption. Research in Italy and the United States concludes that the most common cause of HCC (responsible for 32% to 45% of HCC) is alcohol. It has recently been shown that a significant relationship between alcohol intake, metabolic changes, and hepatitis virus infection does exist. Alcohol may be a factor in the development of HCC via direct (genotoxic) and indirect mechanisms (cirrhosis). There is only one way of diagnosing HCC, which is early identification through surveillance, when curative treatments become possible. After stopping alcohol intake the risk of liver cancer decreases by 6% to 7% a year, and an estimated time period of 23 years is also needed. Therefore, surveillance is also important in former drinkers and, in our opinion, independently from the presence of compensated cirrhosis. In cases of very early stage (VES) and early stage with portal hypertension, liver transplantation is the optimal option; and in cases of associated disease, percutaneous ethanol injections, radiofrequency and microwave ablation are the ideal treatments. Despite the possibility of detecting microvascular invasion with HR, several studies and some randomized controlled trials revealed that overall survival and DSF rates in patients with VES HCC are much the same after ablation and HR. Therefore, ablation can be regarded as a first-line choice for patients with VES HCC. It is important to emphasize that the choice of treatment should be weighed carefully in the context of a multidisciplinary cancer team.

). Establishment and Evaluation of the Orthotopic Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Drug-Induced Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Mice With Spleen-Deficiency Syndrome in Traditional Chinese Medicine

“…The drug-induced HCC model are generally used for simulating the hepatic tumor which is accumulated by long-time administration of different kinds of medications (Caviglia and Schwabe, 2015), while alcoholic beverages being included, it could also simulate the alcoholic liver cancer additionally (Thompson et al, 2015). For the substances used for inducing the HCC in this study, the DEN is a highly toxic chemical characterized by high risks for carcinogenicity, teratogenicity and genetic mutation, which is often used for induced HCC in mice (Zhao et al, 2015); the CCl 4 is also a common toxic chemical in the fields of chemical engineering and paint which can be a main component of rubber, detergent, pesticide and so on, except for the risks above, furthermore it has chronic toxicity on kidney and liver and could lead to hepatic steatosis, cirrhosis and enlargement of kidney (Cai et al, 2015); the spirit contains high content of alcohol, the 90% of which will be decomposed in liver, thereafter the ethyl alcohol and its metabolite acetaldehyde could directly damage the hepatocytes and probably lead to HCC (Testino et al, 2014).…”

Different roles of FAT10, FOXO1, and ADRA2A in hepatocellular carcinoma tumorigenesis in patients with alcoholic steatohepatitis (ASH) vs non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)

“…Experimental and epidemic studies have shown relationships between NASH and HCC development. Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and ASH are the major causes of HCC in US [Morgan et al, 2004][Ramadori et al, 2017][Testino et al, 2014]. NASH has similar histological features with alcoholic hepatitis, such as overt lipid deposition and fat storage in the liver parenchymal cells.…”

Vitamin K: A potential Liver Cancer treatment way

“…In addition to viral hepatitis, alcohol-induced liver damage is a major risk factor for developing HCC [20]. In a study investigating PIVKA-II levels in patients with benign alcoholic liver disease (ALD), 21% of cases had PIVKA-II levels above the cut-off value commonly used for the tumour marker [21].…”