Researchers: Liver Cancer Kills 40,000 a Year in Europe

More than 6,000 physicians and scientists gathered in Milan, Italy, to attend the 43rd annual meeting of the European Association for the study of the liver to discuss liver disease and treatment improvements.

Liver cancer takes about 40,000 lives a year and liver disease caused by alcohol abuse takes some 13,000 in the European Union, researchers say.

More than 6,000 physicians and scientists from around the world are gathered in Milan, Italy, to attend the 43rd annual meeting of the European Association for the study of the liver to discuss liver disease and treatment improvements.

Acute and chronic conditions affecting the largest internal organ of the body includes diseases that typically result from inflammation or infection due to injurious agents such as viruses, alcohol and drugs.

The most prominent conditions -- each of which may arise in an acute form but then progress to a chronic state -- are alcoholic liver disease; hepatitis B, C, and D; non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and NASH, or non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, the most severe subset of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

There are continuing declines in new cases of hepatitis B and C, but stability or increases in fatty liver disease due either to excessive consumption of alcohol or non-alcoholic causes non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, one of the opening presentations said.

source: United Press International