Larry K. Pickering
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the West Virginia University Pediatric Department or Alzheimer's San Diego.
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Boston Globe
9 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Three out of five liver cancer cases are preventable, study finds
Advertisement The findings align with what liver specialists have seen in their clinics for years. 'Liver cancer is common, it causes immense suffering and death, and the saddest part for me as a physician is that most of the cases are preventable,' said Dr. Brian P. Lee, an associate professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, who was not involved in the study. Improved screening, vaccination and treatment in recent years have helped stem viral hepatitis, especially in the United States. But the threat of liver cancer from heavy alcohol use and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, or MASLD, formerly known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, 'has been underrecognized and underestimated,' said Dr. Ahmed Kaseb, a professor of gastrointestinal medical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, who was not associated with the study. Advertisement A 'highway' to liver cancer A vast majority of liver cancers arise in people with cirrhosis, said Dr. Hashem El-Serag, the chair of the department of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas and one of the authors of the new study. Cirrhosis, or advanced and largely irreversible scarring of the liver, damages healthy tissue and prevents the organ from working normally. The hepatitis B and C viruses cause inflammation that, if left untreated, can scar and damage the liver, potentially leading to cirrhosis. And both alcohol and metabolic dysfunction lead to abnormal deposits of fat in the liver, which can also result in inflammation. Related : Lee said the accumulation of fat and inflammation acted as a 'highway' to liver scarring, which in turn can injure DNA and lead to cancer. 'There could be multiple ramps to get onto that highway,' he said. Why disease may go undetected The new paper found that the share of liver cancers resulting from hepatitis B and hepatitis C is expected to drop to 63% in 2050, from 68% in 2022. But the burden of liver cancers resulting from alcohol and MASLD is expected to grow. An estimated 4 in 10 adults worldwide have MASLD, a condition in which fat builds up in the liver. Risk factors include obesity and Type 2 diabetes. A subset of patients with MASLD will go on to develop an advanced form called metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, or MASH, which has been described as a silent killer because it can progress to cirrhosis and liver cancer without being noticed. Current guidance recommends monitoring for liver cancers in patients who have a history of viral hepatitis or established cirrhosis. Patients with MASH typically don't meet that criteria, Kaseb said, but they could have liver scarring without symptoms, and nobody would know. Related : Advertisement That's why screening for liver disease needs to begin at the primary care level, where cases can easily go undetected, said Dr. Mary Rinella, a hepatologist at University of Chicago Medicine and the lead author of guidelines for the management of MASLD. She recommended that doctors use a metric called the Fib-4, which uses routine blood test results to estimate the amount of liver scarring, to screen high-risk patients. These include people who have Type 2 diabetes or obesity with at least one other metabolic risk factor, such as high cholesterol. MASLD is reversible with lifestyle changes, including a healthy diet and increased exercise, and weight-loss drugs have recently been shown to be effective at reversing scarring as well. 'If you stop the reason or the impetus for scarring and injury in the liver, then you're going to have less impetus for the development of cancer,' Rinella said. Alcohol compounds the problem Alcohol-related liver disease is also on the rise. In research published this month, Lee and his colleagues showed that the risk of alcohol-related liver disease among heavy drinkers (at least 10 drinks per week for women and 15 for men) in the United States more than doubled between 1999 and 2020, despite similar alcohol use over that period. That suggests that heavy drinkers today may be more sensitive to the effects of alcohol on the liver than those in the past, Lee said. This may be because the population of heavy drinkers is changing. The researchers found that women, who are more prone than men to develop fat and damage in the liver from alcohol, now make up a greater share of heavy drinkers than they did 20 years ago. So do people with metabolic syndrome, a cluster of metabolic disorders that together raise the risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke — and compound the damage done by alcohol to the liver. Related : Advertisement Drinking heavily and having a metabolic condition such as obesity can independently damage the liver, but patients who fall in both categories are at an especially high risk. These trends are likely to continue. 'Alcohol use is increasing,' Rinella said. 'Obesity and diabetes are increasing.' 'I expect that we're going to continue to see a high burden of liver disease,' she added. This article originally appeared in .
Axios
17 hours ago
- Axios
Houston Methodist Hospital named best hospital in Texas by U.S. News
Houston Methodist Hospital continues to rank as the best hospital in Texas, and several other Houston-area hospitals also topped the state rankings, according to U.S. News & World Report's annual analysis, published Tuesday. Why it matters: Houston's world-class medical care means good health care access for locals — plus it draws people to the city as a place to live, work and seek treatment. State of play: U.S. News' ranking compared more than 4,400 hospitals by patient outcomes across 20 benchmark procedures like knee replacement and heart bypass surgery, as well as other data sources like Medicare and patient surveys. Zoom in: For the 14th year, Houston Methodist was named the top hospital in Texas. It also landed a spot on the national Best Hospitals Honor Roll again. Six Houston-area hospitals made the state's top 10 list, including Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center, Memorial Hermann Hospital and its Greater Heights location, and Houston Methodist's Sugar Land and Willowbrook hospitals. The rankings also include specialty categories where the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center once again ranked No. 1 in the nation for cancer treatment. What they're saying:"Houston's health care system is impressively represented in the 2025-2026 U.S. News Best Hospitals rankings, with 12 Best Regional Hospitals recognized in the Houston metro," Chelsey Wen, senior health data analyst at U.S. News, tells Axios. "This broad recognition … assures residents of widespread access to high-quality patient care," Wen says. Here are the top-ranked hospitals in Houston:
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Liver cancer cases are projected to double, but more than half could be preventable
At least 60% of liver cancers could be preventable, according to an analysis published Monday in The Lancet. Liver cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the world, with around 870,000 cases in 2022. That's projected to increase to 1.52 million cases in 2050, the new report found, if no changes are made. The leading cause of liver cancer is viral infections, including the hepatitis B and C viruses. Hepatitis B infections — which are preventable with a vaccine — accounted for 39% of liver cancers in 2022. That's expected to fall slightly, to 36.9%, by 2025. Hepatitis C accounted for 29.1% of liver cancers in 2022 and is also projected to fall, to 25.9%, by 2050. The proportions of alcohol- and obesity-related liver cancers, however, are projected to rise in the next 25 years. Alcohol accounted for 18.8% of liver cancers in 2022, and that is expected to increase to 21.1% in 2050. The share of liver cancers caused by obesity-related disease is projected to increase from 8% to 10.8% by 2050 due to increasing rates of obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol and other metabolic risk factors. Dr. Hashem El-Serag, one of the report's co-authors and chair of the department of medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said the public usually thinks of alcohol as the biggest risk factor for liver cancer. 'I think for most people, if you say cirrhosis, they immediately think of a relative, of someone who was a heavy drinker,' El-Serag said. 'I think the vast majority do not make the tie between MASLD, or fatty liver, and cirrhosis and liver cancer.' MASLD, or metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, affects about 25% of adults in the U.S. It's caused by a buildup of fat in the liver. About 5% of U.S. adults have a more severe form, called metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), which can lead to scarring, or cirrhosis, of the liver, significantly increasing the risk of cancer. Excess alcohol consumption can also lead to cirrhosis. Liver cancer is still relatively rare in the United States, representing 2.1% of all new cancer diagnoses in 2025. The report estimated that by 2040, U.S. rates of MASLD could more than double, affecting more than 55% of adults. Detecting liver cancer risk factors Earlier detection and effective treatment plans for MASLD can reduce the risk of obesity-related liver cancer, El-Serag said. The most common treatment is weight loss. GLP-1 weight loss drugs, which include Ozempic and Wegovy, are promising, he said. (A clinical trial published in April found that Wegovy treated MASH in about two-thirds of patients.) However, people aren't screened for MASLD like they are for viral hepatitis, El-Serag said. Dr. Arun Jesudian, a hepatologist and the director of liver quality and inpatient liver services at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian, said patients are tested for MASLD and/or MASH if they have elevated liver enzymes in their blood. Raising awareness about MASLD among both patients and doctors can lead to more effective testing and diagnosis, Jesudian said. 'I think then we need to make sure that providers who are interacting with these patients are looking at the liver disease component of metabolic syndrome,' he said, referring to patients with a cluster of conditions including high blood sugar, high blood pressure and excess weight. 'So checking liver enzymes, that they know how to assess for fibrosis, even based on these blood test scores.' MASLD and MASH can often be asymptomatic, making self-detection more challenging. 'Right now, it's haphazard. Some people get tested. Others get suspected. Third, who knows?' El-Serag said. Dr. Neehar Parikh, a hepatologist at the University of Michigan who specializes in liver cancer, said he is seeing more patients with MASLD as a driving factor for liver cancer. Patients with MASLD can develop liver cancer without developing cirrhosis, making it even more challenging to detect those cases, Parikh said. Up to 40% of those with liver cancers linked to MASLD don't develop cirrhosis, according to the report. Figuring out who those patients are is the 'million-dollar question,' he said. 'Those patients that develop MASLD that develop liver cancer, you know, how do you screen that population? We don't really know what to do.' Still, Parikh said these types of cases are rare. Ultimately, Jesudian said, 'treating these liver diseases early is the best way to prevent liver cancer, because liver cancer almost always occurs in the setting of chronic liver disease.' This article was originally published on Solve the daily Crossword
