Perfluooctane Sulfate: How This Synthetic ‘Forever Chemical’ Is Linked to the Most Common Type of Liver Cancer

A new study recently showed that exposure to a synthetic chemical found widely in the environment is associated with non-viral hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common liver cancer type.

A EurekAlert! report specified that according to researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC, the chemical, identified as perfluooctane sulfate or PFOS, is one of a class of man-made chemicals known as "per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance," or FPAS.

Such chemicals used in a wide range of consumer and industrial products are at times called "forever chemicals" as they break down very slowly and accrue in the environment and human tissue which include the liver.

Prior research in animals has suggested that exposure to PFAS increases the risk of liver cancer, although this is the first study to confirm a link using human specimens.

'Forever Chemical' Linked to Liver Cancer

Postdoctoral scholar Jesse Goodrich, PhD from the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine said, this builds on the current research, although takes it one step ahead.

The postdoctoral scholar also said liver cancer is "one of the most serious endpoints in liver disease" and this is the first study in humans to demonstrate that PFAS are linked to this disease.

The team at the Keck School of Medicine was able to use human specimens collected as part of an extensive epidemiology study, a collaboration between the medical school and the University of Hawaii, also known as the Multiethnic Cohort Study.

This research, published in JHEP Reports, has followed over 200,000 residents of Los Angeles and Hawaii for the development of cancer, as well as other diseases.

Study Findings

Such a repository of human blood and tissue samples enabled the researchers to find 50 participants who eventually developed liver cancer, analyzed the blood specimens that were taken before a diagnosis of their cancer, and compared these with 50 individuals who did not develop the disease from the same research.

Part of the reason, according to professor of population and public health sciences Veronica Wendy Setiawan, Ph.D., from the Keck School of Medicine, there have been few human research is because there is a need for the right samples.

When one is looking at an environmental exposure, he needs samples from way before a diagnosis as it takes time for cancer to develop.

Study investigators discovered several PFAS types in the blood specimens that were taken before the participant developed liver cancer.

Disrupting Normal Liver Function

The study revealed that the strongest link was between PFOS and liver cancer and that subjects in the top 10 percent of exposure to PFOS were a little over four times more likely to develop liver cancer compared to those with the lowest PFOS levels in their blood.

The researchers were able to illuminate the possible ways in which PFOS changed the liver's normal function. Their analysis of the samples showed evidence that PFOS appears to adjust the normal process of bile acid metabolism, glucose metabolism, and the metabolism of an amino acid type known as branched-chain amino acids in the liver.

This disruption of normal metabolic processes in the liver can lead to more fat accumulation in the liver, a condition called a non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or NAFLD, a similar News-Medical.net report said.

Related information about 'Forever Chemicals' is shown on WION's YouTube video below:

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