
Question: Cirrhosis long term prognosis and liver cancer
Hi. My husband's Hep C has progressed to cirrhosis. We are still
waiting on CT scan results, so we don't know the extent, just that the
inflammation level is 'stage 2' according to his doc. 10 years ago he
had stage II fibrosis, and he was 15 years clean and sober at that
point so we're hoping it's still early cirrhosis.
While researching stuff, I found that apparently the risk of liver
cancer increases by 3% per year for every year you have cirrhosis.
He's one more time going to try the pegasys/ribavirin treatment. He
got off the last two times because he couldn't tolerate the side
effects, but this time he's going to stick with it, come hell or high
water (both of which are possible).
Thing is: IF this works and he clears the Hep C, does the increased
liver cancer risk still apply or does it go down?
Thanks.
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Camilla Cracchiolo
Registered Nurse
Los Angeles, California