Course of liver cancer evolving; Amazing science behind immunotherapy

*This interview took place between Cry of the Hawk staff member and division head of hematology at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center Doctor Myo about immunotherapy.

     Liver cancer is one of the many leading causes of death because chronic inflammation and irritation leads to cancer.

     According to hematologist Doctor Myo Min, “the main cause for liver cancer is Hepatitis B and C, Hepatitis C being the most common.” He explained the reason liver cancer is such a leading cause of death in the world, “especially in the east is because Hepatitis B is an endemic.” This means that “everyone is exposed since birth. So, of course outside Europe and America, there is a lot of Hepatitis and death.”

      Liver cancer is not as common “in the U.S. because the Hepatitis B vaccine has been a part of your program since you were young.”

     Doctor Min explained the reason this form of cancer comes back more often than most cancer is because “the liver from the beginning is compromised. Sometimes if it forms in difficult sections; you cannot cure it.”

     Neoadjuvant immunotherapy is a form of cancer treatment that involves “shrinking down the tumor before the liver is cut  and killing the cells that might be hiding outside the tumor.” The process also includes “securing the whole liver and the tumor and then there are clinical trials to give immunotherapy.”

     There is “a lot of amazing science” that led up to the process of immunotherapy according to Doctor Min. He said the doctor who created immunotherapy was “like a lab rat and his name was Doctor James Allison. He is a famous doctor who got a Nobel prize.”

     Doctor Allison’s work led him to “save a lot of lives in the world.”

     The scientist discovered that “the cancer cells can turn off the immune cells’ policeman function so they can hide. Doctor Allison is the one who found this little pathway, preventing the immune cells from falling asleep so they see the cancer cells and kill them.”

     Doctor Min explained how “the fundamental course of liver cancer is changing in the world, especially in the western world because of lifestyle changes. Obesity has become very prevalent, and people blame it on the food supply and how it’s prepared. [A lot of our food] is full of saturated and unsaturated fat.”

     He also talked about “failing livers being a product of inactivity, diabetics, and high cholesterol. If you don’t take care of it, then it will lead to cirrhosis, and the next step up is liver cancer.”  

      With “healthy food, regular exercise, and weight control” Doctor Min says you can avoid “compromising the liver and reduce the possibility of liver cancer.”