Maintain pressure on reforms to protect NHSAlcohol and obesity fuel soaring liver cancer rates
Cases of liver cancer have more than tripled in the last 30 years, fuelled by obesity and alcohol, according to new figures.
In 2006, there were 3,108 cases of cancer originating in the liver, compared to just 865 back in 1975.
The rate of primary liver cancer increased almost threefold - from 1.4 per 100,000 in 1975 to 3.9 in 2006.
The rise in drinking levels, obesity and hepatitis C is causing cirrhosis of the liver which can develop into primary liver cancer, according to experts.
Matt Seymour, Cancer Research UK’s professor of gastrointestinal cancer medicine at the University of Leeds, said: “Three main risk factors for liver cirrhosis - alcohol, obesity and hepatitis C infection - are getting more common in the UK.
“So we are seeing more patients with cirrhosis and, in turn, more patients with primary liver cancer. This is likely to continue.
“There is a long delay between exposure to the risk factors and the onset of cancer. So even if new cases of infection stopped, the number of cases of cancer would continue to rise for some years.”
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