Drinking alcohol, even occasionally, is responsible for 55% of liver cancer cases

Carlos Rubio

Madrid, February 14 (EFE). – Almost 6 out of every 10 cases of liver cancer (55%) are associated with alcohol consumption, even if the habit is to drink intermittently or occasionally, so hepatologists make it clear about alcoholic drinks: they are not healthy in any case, and excesses on the weekend are the same harmful, just like drinking alcohol every day.

More than a thousand experts meet this week in Madrid at the 49th Congress of the Spanish Society for the Study of the Liver (AEEH) to present research into the evolution of the etiology of liver cancer in recent years. considers alcohol to be the number one cause of liver disease.

Liver cancer can affect 29.9% of healthy people who drink alcohol, and its prevalence increases to 54.9% if alcohol consumption is accompanied by pre-existing conditions, including fatty liver disease, a condition that affects a third of the Spanish population and is caused, among other things, by obesity or diabetes.

Thus, the message of hepatologists against alcohol is loud, as is the medical consensus against tobacco.

But how much weekly alcohol consumption can be considered unhealthy? There is no consensus on this matter, say experts, who recommend drinking as little as possible and remembering that alcohol, even periodically or occasionally, always increases the risk of developing any type of cancer, not just the liver.

In an interview with EFE, AEEH President Manuel Romero stated that “alcohol is an agent that causes liver cancer if consumed occasionally or in large quantities.” He argues that “every day there is more evidence that it is harmful to health” and debunks the myth of two glasses of wine a day as a healthy habit that the Mediterranean diet has always promoted.

According to the findings that experts will discuss this week in Madrid (III Registry of Hepatocellular Carcinoma with data from 767 patients from 52 hospitals), Romero recalls that a third of the Spanish population, that is, 30%, suffers from fatty liver. (alcohol-related or not), pathology caused by obesity, sedentary lifestyle or abuse of ultra-processed foods.

He points out that more than 9% of the population, or one in ten people according to recent studies of habits, admit to drinking alcohol on a daily basis, and this figure, in his opinion, could be higher.

Data from the latest hepatology registry shows that cases of fatty liver cancer have increased by ten points since 2008 (from 1.9 to 11.8%) as they have increased “alarmingly” among people suffering from this fat buildup, a pathology that usually detected unexpectedly during routine testing.

Hepatologists condemn the failure of government policies to combat alcohol consumption in society and regret that it has not been possible to change its weight and public acceptance, although it is the main cause of hepatocellular carcinoma.

According to the figures presented at the beginning, this means that almost 6 out of every 10 cases of liver cancer in Spain are due to alcohol, which also creates two paradoxical circumstances for hepatologists: liver cancer is the cancer that takes the most years of life from the population , but the perception of its risks in our country remains unchanged.

They remember that young people are starting to drink alcohol at increasingly younger ages and in high-risk patterns (drinking large amounts of alcohol over several hours).

The president of hepatologists wants to dispel myths common among young people that the liver is an organ that easily regenerates: “It’s an urban legend,” Romero disavows.

He explains that the liver after surgery can swell again after six weeks, but cirrhosis and other conditions caused by alcohol lead to a loss of functioning cells, the organ eventually becoming fibrotic and therefore losing all regenerative capacity.

“The liver has a point of no return,” warns this expert, but clarifies that cirrhosis and other conditions such as fatty liver can be cured to a certain extent because it is a “grateful organ.”

Hepatologists do not hesitate to recommend a Mediterranean diet (but without alcohol) as a habit against metabolic diseases, along with regular exercise or, failing that, walking more than 40 thousand steps. The latter, as Romero notes, has a beneficial effect on the liver.

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