Of all cancer types, the most alcohol-related cancer is "liver cancer." Because the liver is the main organ that metabolizes alcohol, more than 95% of the alcohol ingested is actually decomposed and metabolized in the liver.
Long-term alcohol abuse can induce a range of pathological changes in the liver, including fatty liver disease, hepatitis and liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, and cancer. Clinically, these liver injuries caused by alcohol are collectively referred to as "alcoholic liver disease".
The content about alcohol causing liver cancer has been deeply rooted in people's minds. However, everyone also has doubts about it, because China is the world's liver cancer power, and the number of newly diagnosed liver cancer patients reaches 410,000 every year.
On the contrary, it is clear that many European and American countries are also big consumers of alcohol, but the incidence rate of liver cancer in their countries is significantly lower than that of the mainland.
First of all, we must understand that the mainland is the country with the largest population base, with a population of nearly 1.4 billion people. With the population base as the basis, the number of chronic diseases is naturally higher than in other countries.
As for the overall incidence of liver cancer in other countries is lower than in China, it is mainly related to the following two major factors:
1. The impact of hepatitis B
It is true that drinking alcohol is a high risk factor for liver cancer, but from the perspective of absolute risk of liver cancer, the first general risk factor of liver cancer is actually not alcoholism, but chronic viral hepatitis. Among several types of viral hepatitis, hepatitis B is the most dangerous.
Although the mainland has introduced a hepatitis B vaccine, it has implemented a free injection policy. However, in the mainland, there are still nearly 70 million hepatitis B virus carriers and 20 million chronic hepatitis B patients, which is the largest number of hepatitis B virus carriers and hepatitis B patients in the world.
In mainland China, the detection rate of hepatitis B virus in patients with primary liver cancer has reached about 90%. Nearly 70% of the incidence of primary liver cancer is based on cirrhosis, and basically hepatitis B and C develop nodular cirrhosis.
Studies with relevant data show that nearly 3 to 6% of hepatitis B cirrhosis will develop into liver cancer every year. In particular, people with hepatitis B who still have long-term alcoholism will have a greater chance of developing liver cancer in the future.
2. Genetic influences
The liver metabolizes alcohol, mainly by the secretion of two enzymes, namely ethanol and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. Europeans and Americans are more perfect in these two genes, but the Chinese is different. Most of the mainland residents are deficient in the ALDN2 gene, which is located on human chromosome 12, which has both acetaldehyde dehydrogenase and esterase activity.
Lack of this enzyme does not affect health, but it does affect the metabolic capacity of acetaldehyde. That is, after ethanol enters the body, it can be decomposed into acetaldehyde by the liver, but acetaldehyde cannot be quickly metabolized, which not only leads to alcohol poisoning, but also has a certain hepatotoxic effect, which can change the expression of cell DNA, and then increase the probability of cancer.
All in all, the mainland is the world's largest liver cancer country, in fact, it is still affected by the disease of hepatitis B.
However, it cannot be denied that long-term alcohol abuse does cause damage to the liver, and it is a high risk factor for the development of alcoholic liver disease. Therefore, we can not have a fluke mentality, drinking alcohol is indeed no benefit to health, it is necessary to quit drinking as soon as possible.