BSIP/UIG via Getty ImagesAn international group wants governments and agencies to work together to eradicate liver cancer.
Most of the deaths from liver cancer, 80%, can be prevented if people only had the medicine and knew they needed it.
On World Cancer Day, Thursday, Feb. 4, an international patient advocacy group wants governments to start screening for liver cancer and administering the proper vaccinations or medicine.
Some 800,000 people globally die each year from liver cancer. In the most famous recent case, David Bowie is said to have died from it.
There are two types of liver cancer, one which starts in the liver and one which metastasizes from other parts of the body.
The sort that begins in the liver, the most prevalent, is often brought on by heavy drinking and a long-term infection from hepatitis B or hepatitis C.
For B, there is an injection which is 100% effective.
“It is completely preventable because there is a vaccine — for B only,” says Tara Farrell, spokeswoman for the World Hepatitis Alliance in London.
But because of the costs of screening for the disease, the injection is not getting to those in need.
BOB CHILD/APDavid Bowie died last month, reportedly from liver cancer.
“It is shocking,” Farrell says.
Of the 800,000 deaths from liver cancer a year, 642,500 of those are from the two strains of hepatitis.
Hepatitis B is usually a result of exchanging bodily fluids with an infected person. In developing countries is commonly passed from mother to child during birth.
That, though, is predicated on people being screened, which is what this group made up of people from 81 countries, wants.
For hepatitis C, there are drugs that are 90% effective, but again people must be tested and given the medicine.
The call to ask governments to establish comprehensive strategies, set up a national registry for hepatitis drugs and forge partnerships with private organizations working to cure liver cancer went out Thursday.
“This year we are recognizing the importance of how everyone can do their part and use the day as a springboard for positive change,” Cary Adams, the CEO for International Cancer Control, said in a statement. “Working with the World Hepatitis Alliance and other organizations, we can demonstrate the impact of a joined-up approach to reduce the annual cancer death toll of more than 8 million people worldwide.”
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