I am curious about the different types of liver cancer and how they are linked to hepatitis. This cancer originates from the hepatocytes, the most numerous cells in the liver. Many people, including doctors, use the term liver cancer, to describe any cancer that happens to be in the liver. Hepatocellular carcinoma, though, is a cancer that originates in the liver. It metastasizes to other organs, if not surgically removed in time.
Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most common cancers worldwide.
It is especially prevalent in Asia and Africa, where chronic hepatitis B and C infection is common. Hepatitis C is more commonly acquired through blood or blood-product transfusion or through shared needle use, all activities that tend to occur later in life. Therefore the hepatocellular cancers attributed to hepatitis C tend to appear at a later age than those due to hepatitis B. Analysis of the genes in hepatocellular cancers that develop in people infected with hepatitis B have shown that the hepatitis B genes have been incorporated into the cancer cells in the vast majority of cases. This cancer, therefore, joins cancer of the cervix and certain lymphomas on the list of cancers that are caused, at least in part, by viral infections. Because the cancer tends to appear in a liver that is already cirrhotic, any early symptoms that it may produce, such as discomfort in the right upper abdomen, tend to be attributed to progression of the cirrhosis.