Patient's question:
My aunt has had chronic hepatitis B for over 30 years. She contracted it during a postpartum hemorrhage when she had surgery. Now, an abdominal ultrasound shows that she has some liver cirrhosis. I want to ask if chronic hepatitis B can develop into liver cancer? How can we prevent it from progressing to liver cancer?Doctor's answer:
Generally speaking, chronic hepatitis B has a certain probability of progressing to liver cancer, but the probability of this occurring is not very high, usually around 0.5%. If you have already noticed symptoms of cirrhosis, you need to start active antifibrosis treatment now. Additionally, you need to take many liver-protecting medications. Furthermore, regular liver ultrasound and alpha-fetoprotein tests are necessary to achieve early detection if tumors reappear.