Diabetes Boosts Liver Cancer Risk in Hepatitis, Cirrhosis Cases

THURSDAY, June 5 (HealthDay News) -- Diabetes doubles the risk of liver cancer in patients with chronic hepatitis C with advanced fibrosis, or cirrhosis, a Dutch study reports.

Researchers at the Erasmus MC University Medical Center in Rotterdam analyzed data on 541 European and Canadian patients with chronic hepatitis C with advanced cirrhosis. Of those patients, 85 had diabetes. Patients with more severe fibrosis were more likely to have diabetes.

TUESDAY, May 6 (HealthDay News) -- New noninvasive methods to detect esophageal bleeding in people with cirrhosis show promise, according to two studies by Italian and American researchers.

TUESDAY, May 6 (HealthDay News) -- The grapefruit flavonoid naringenin inhibits the secretion of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) in infected cells and could offer a new approach for treating the disease, according to a Harvard Medical School study.

About 3 percent of the global population is infected with HCV, which can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer. The current standard therapy of interferon and ribavirin is only effective in about 50 percent of cases and can cause major side effects, according to background information in the study.