Can Alcohol Cause Liver Cancer?
In This Article
Can Alcohol Cause Liver Cancer?
Liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma) is often linked to excessive consumption of alcohol. Although alcohol doesn’t directly cause liver cancer, it can increase your risk of long-term liver damage and scarring (cirrhosis).
However, it takes time to develop long-term liver cirrhosis with heavy alcohol use. The damage can actually cause changes in the DNA of the liver cells, which is what can eventually lead to cancer.
How Does Alcohol Increase Cancer Risk?
Your body breaks down alcohol into a chemical called acetaldehyde, which damages your DNA and then stops your body from repairing that damage. This damage can stunt cell growth and inhibit their normal function.
When cells grow out of control, they can create cancer tumors. Additionally, alcohol can increase your risk of developing several types of cancer, such as the following:
- Mouth and throat cancer
- Voicebox (larynx) cancer
- Esophageal cancer
- Colon and rectum cancer
- Breast cancer (in women)
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Risk Factors Associated with Alcohol-Related Liver Cancer
Several factors greatly increase a person’s risk of developing alcohol-related cancer. Here are some of them:
- Binge drinking: Consuming a large amount of alcohol in a short period of time. This can lead to fatty liver disease and, sometimes, alcoholic hepatitis.
- Excessive alcohol consumption: Involves drinking more than one drink every night. This can cause hepatitis and cirrhosis.
- Obesity: Can trigger inflammation inside the body, overworking the liver. Excessive drinking can add to the strain and increase the risk of cancer.
- Being female: Women are more prone to developing alcohol-related liver cancer because, compared to men, women are more vulnerable to alcohol’s harmful effects.
- Genetics: People with a family history of alcohol abuse have a higher tendency to become alcoholics themselves. Putting them at risk of liver cancer.
Several other conditions also put people at a higher risk of cancer in the liver, such as hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
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What are the Symptoms of Liver Cancer?
Liver cancer symptoms will vary among different cancer patients, but some of the most common liver cancer symptoms include the following:
- Liver pain after drinking
- Nausea or vomiting with or without drinking
- Unexplained weight loss
- Loss of appetite
- Feeling full after small meals
- Easy bruising or bleeding
- Unusual tiredness
- An enlarged liver on the right side
- An enlarged spleen on the left side
- Swelling or fluid build-up in the abdomen
- Itching
- Jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes)
Other Alcohol-Related Liver Conditions
Alcohol can cause other damage to your liver beyond increasing your risk of developing cancer. Other alcohol-related liver conditions include the following:
- Alcoholic liver disease
- Alcoholic Hepatitis
- Alcoholic fatty liver disease
- Bile duct cancer
- Primary sclerosing cholangitis
- Liver failure
What’s the Survival Rate of Liver Cancer?
About 26 percent of those diagnosed with liver cancer survive five or more years if the cancer doesn’t spread beyond their livers. About 10 percent were alive after five years if the cancer spread to tissues or lymph nodes around the liver.
Finally, about four percent were alive five years after if it spread to other parts of the body. Fortunately, cancer treatment can increase the survival rate.
The five-year survival rate for people diagnosed with early-stage liver cancers and who have a liver transplant is about 60 to 70 percent.
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Alcohol and Liver Cancer Statistics
Liver cancer is on the rise. Here are some statistics about alcohol and liver cancer of which you should be aware:
- More than 800,000 people around the world are diagnosed with liver cancer every year.
- Liver cancer affects about 33,000 people each year in the United States alone, claiming the lives of about 27,000.
- Drinking alcohol increases your risk of developing liver cancer two-fold.
- The use of alcohol accounts for about six percent of all cancers.
- Alcohol use accounts for about four percent of all cancer deaths across the country
How Common is Alcohol-Related Liver Cancer?
Several risk factors can increase one’s chances of developing liver cancer. This makes it hard to pinpoint exactly how many people get liver cancer from consuming alcoholic drinks.
That said, heavy alcohol use is linked to a doubled risk of liver cancer. The more one drinks, the bigger the risk of developing liver cancer, which puts heavy drinkers in danger.
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- “Alcohol and Cancer Risk Fact Sheet.” National Cancer Institute, 2021.
- “Alcohol and Cancer.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019.
- “Alcohol Use and Cancer.” American Cancer Society, 2020.
- Peirce, A.“Should a Person with Liver Cancer Stop Drinking Alcohol?” Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 2015.
- “Liver Cancer.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023.
- “Preventing Liver Cancer.” Patient Care at NYU Langone Health.
- Asafo-Agyei KO. & Samant H. “Hepatocellular Carcinoma.” Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing, 2023.
