Poor liver health and sleep quality increase risk of liver cancer: Study

A recent comprehensive study unveiled critical insights effects of sleep habits and liver function biomarkers on the risk of liver cancer development. The research published in the BMC Medicine journal utilized data from the UK Biobank and underline the significant impact of sleep quality and liver health on liver cancer incidence.

The study analyzed data from a total of 3,56,894 participants without cancer at the baseline. This research evaluated the sleep quality of participants based on five sleep traits which were sleep duration, chronotype (morning or evening preference), insomnia, snoring and excessive daytime sleepiness. These traits helped to categorize sleep as either healthy or unhealthy. Also, the other liver function biomarkers measured were alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), total bilirubin (TBIL), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total protein (TP), and albumin (ALB).

After a median follow-up period of 13.1 years, close to 394 new cases of liver cancer were documented. The study found that participants with unhealthy sleep underwent a 46% increased risk of developing liver cancer when compared to the patients with healthy sleep patterns. The multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for liver cancer linked with unhealthy sleep was 1.46.

The study also found that each 10-unit increase in liver function biomarkers was associated with varying degrees of liver cancer risk which were mostly elevated. The HR for liver cancer was 1.17 for ALT, 1.20 for AST, 1.69 for TBIL, 1.06 for GGT, 1.08 for ALP, 1.81 for TP but, 0.29 for ALB. This indicated that higher levels of ALT, AST, TBIL, GGT, ALP and TP elevate the risk of liver cancer, while the higher ALB levels showed protective effect.

The individuals with both unhealthy sleep and high levels (≥ median) of ALT, AST, TBIL, GGT, ALP, or TP or low levels (< median) of ALB, expressed the highest risk for liver cancer. The HR for liver cancer was 3.65 for high ALT and unhealthy sleep, 4.03 for high AST and unhealthy sleep and 4.69 for high GGT and unhealthy sleep. Additionally, a significant interaction was observed between unhealthy sleep and high TP levels on liver cancer risk with a relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI) of 0.80. Overall, to reduce liver cancer risk it is important to maintain both good sleep hygiene and liver health.

Source:

Song, J., Fan, L., Shi, D., Lai, X., Wang, H., Liu, W., Yu, L., Liang, R., Zhang, Y., Wan, S., Yang, Y., & Wang, B. (2024). Sleep and liver function biomarkers in relation to risk of incident liver cancer: a nationwide prospective cohort study. In BMC Medicine (Vol. 22, Issue 1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-024-03440-w