THURSDAY, Jan. 26 (HealthDay News) — Popular
cholesterol-lowering statins may also lower risk for liver cancer among
people with hepatitis B, a new study shows. Hepatitis B, an inflammation
of the liver due to the hepatitis B virus, is one of the main causes of
liver cancer.

This is not the first time that statins have shown promise in reducing
risk for cancer. Other studies have hinted that these drugs may play a
role in preventing certain types of cancer, including breast cancer.

In the new study of more than 33,000 individuals with hepatitis B
followed from 1997 to 2008, those who took a statin were less likely to
develop liver cancer, when compared to participants who were not
prescribed statins. What’s more, the longer a person took statins, the
greater the liver-cancer risk reduction. Study participants were
prescribed the statins to treat high cholesterol levels. Overall, 1,021
people developed liver cancer during the study period.

More research is needed to see how statins may lower liver cancer risk
among people with hepatitis B, the researchers said.

“Statins have potential protective effects against cancers [and]
carriers of hepatitis B virus infection have a substantial risk of [liver]
carcinoma,” said Dr. Pau-Chung Chen, a professor of environmental medicine
and epidemiology at National Taiwan University, in Taipei. “Statin use is
not only a benefit to preventing cardiovascular diseases, but also an
additional, convenient and acceptable strategy for preventing
hepatocellular carcinoma,” or liver cancer, Chen said.

However, statins can cause a potentially dangerous rise in liver
enzymes and liver damage. Regular liver function tests are required for
all people who take statins.

The study appeared online Jan. 23 in the Journal of Clinical
Oncology.

“This is exciting and unequivocally solid research,” said Dr. Eugene
Schiff, a professor of medicine and director of the Center for Liver
Diseases at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

“One of the issues is that statins are relatively contraindicated in
people with liver disease,” Schiff said. But “the take-home message for
people with hepatitis B or anybody with liver disease is that statins are
safe. This re-emphasizes the point that if someone has chronic hepatitis B
and there is an indication for statins, they should get them and they may
be beneficial far beyond lowering cholesterol: They may also reduce their
risk for liver cancer.”

Dr. David Bernstein, chief of hepatology at North Shore University
Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Manhasset, N.Y., is more
cautious. “In almost all other liver conditions, cirrhosis must be present
before [liver cancer] develops,” he said. During cirrhosis, scar tissue
replaces healthy liver tissue. “Statins must be used with caution in
patients with cirrhosis, which can limit their use in patients with liver
disease at risk of developing liver cancer,” he said. “Further studies are
needed in this patient population to confirm these findings.”

More information

For information on

hepatitis B , visit the U.S. National Digestive Diseases
Information Clearinghouse.

Copyright © 2012HealthDay. All rights reserved.

TUESDAY, Nov. 22 (HealthDay News) —
Taking slightly too much of the pain reliever acetaminophen (best known by
the brand name Tylenol) over time can lead to an overdose that can cause
liver failure and death, according to a new study.

These “staggered overdoses” can occur when people have ongoing pain and
repeatedly take a little more acetaminophen than they should, explained
Dr. Kenneth Simpson, author of the study, published Nov. 22 in the
British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

“They haven’t taken the sort of single-moment, one-off massive
overdoses taken by people who try to commit suicide, but over time the
damage builds up, and the effect can be fatal,” Simpson said in a journal
news release.

He and his colleagues analyzed data from 663 patients with
acetaminophen-induced liver injury who were admitted to the Royal
Infirmary of Edinburgh, Scotland between 1992 and 2008. In the U.K. and
elsewhere, acetaminophen is known as paracetamol.

Of those patients, 161 had suffered a staggered overdose while taking
acetaminophen to relieve a variety of ailments, such as headache,
toothache and abdominal and muscular pain.

Compared with people who’d taken a single overdose of acetaminophen,
those with a staggered overdose were more likely to have liver and brain
problems, require kidney dialysis or help with breathing, and were at
greater risk of dying.

Patients with a staggered overdose may not report that they’ve suffered
an overdose when they come to the hospital. They may just report feeling
unwell. Doctors need to recognize and treat this situation quickly,
Simpson said.

“Staggered overdoses or patients presenting late after an overdose need
to be closely monitored and considered for the (acetaminophen) antidote,
N-acetylcysteine, irrespective of the concentration of (acetaminophen) in
their blood,” he said in the release.

More information

The MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia has more about acetaminophen overdose.

Copyright © 2011HealthDay. All rights reserved.

People who have donated part of their liver for transplant can experience physical and psychological complications years after the operation, according to a German study.

Almost half of the 83 liver donors surveyed had complaints ranging from pain and digestive problems to depression three or more years after surgery — but nearly all said they’d donate again, the study in the Annals of Surgery said.

In a living-donor liver transplant, a team of surgeons removes a lobe of the donor’s liver to implant in the recipient. The remaining portion of the donor’s liver regrows to full size within two months.

“There is a risk for some long-term complaints, which may be potentially controllable by workup modifications, improvements in surgical techniques and a thorough follow-up of donors at the transplant centers,” said Georgios Sotiropoulos, lead author and professor of surgery and transplantation at University Hospital Essen in Germany.

Transplant surgeons say they would rather not have to put a healthy person at risk, but there aren’t enough organs available to provide livers for everyone who needs them.

Organs from living donors also have some advantages over the alternative, a liver from a cadaver, for a number of reasons, including that the donation can occur at the best time for the recipient.

The average age of donors in the German study was 36, and their average time since donation was six years.

In the study, 31 percent of donors complained about having diarrhea or an intolerance to fatty foods and about 10 percent complained of gastroesophageal reflux. A small number of donors had discomfort at the incision site or in their ribs.

Three donors reported bouts of severe depression, two of them requiring hospitalization, and one patient had a worsening of pre-existing psoriasis.

Of the 83 donors surveyed, 39 reported no lingering symptoms or problems. But three young and otherwise healthy men said they had been turned down for life insurance because there’s so little data available on the long-term effects of living liver donation.

While the study did not have a control group, its findings are consistent with past research, said Jean Emond, vice chair of the Department of Surgery and director of the transplant center at New York Presbyterian/Columbia Hospital in New York.

“I think the conclusions are cautious and reasonable. We need to keep a close eye on these people,” he said, adding that there needs to be psychological support before and after the procedure.

About 4,500 liver donations have been made in the United States by living donors since the first surgery in 1989, according to the national transplant database. The first such donations were made to children, who require a smaller piece of the liver.

Emond, who assisted with the first live-donor liver surgery, said the risk of death after donating a large portion of the liver is about one in 1,000.

“The ethical standard has to be that you do it because it’s the right thing to do for the patient with full and informed consent, he added. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/utLl8T

(Reporting from New York by Andrew Seaman at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies)