What is the relationship of Chronic Viral Hepatitis and Cirrhosis to Liver Cancer?
Patients with chronic viral hepatitis had a 34-fold greater risk for liver cancer as compared with the general population. Patients with both chronic viral hepatitis and cirrhosis, however, had a much greater increase in the development of liver cancer–118-fold. (Presumably the cirrhosis was caused by the chronic hepatitis. ) Clearly, the combination of chronic viral hepatitis and cirrhosis has a very strong association with the development of liver cancer.
