Echosens Supports October 2020 Liver Cancer Awareness Month: Cites Link to Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Importance of Ea

WALTHAM, Mass. , October 26 /Businesswire/ - Echosens, a high-technology company offering the FibroScan family of products, urges increased awareness of the rise of liver cancer rates, which have more than tripled since 1980, while death rates have more than doubled during this time. About 21,000 Americans are diagnosed with primary liver cancer each year—twice as common in men than in women. Risk factors include other liver diseases, including cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis C and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NAFLD may be a key driver of increased cancer associated with obesity, while non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is the fastest growing cause of liver cancer among transplant candidates.

“People with NAFLD have higher rates of several types of cancer, with the greatest increase seen for liver cancer and other gastrointestinal cancers,” says Jon Gingrich, CEO, Echosens North America. “Point-of-care examinations, monitoring and ongoing assessment of liver fat and stiffness as provided by FibroScan, a rapid, non-invasive point of care examination, can identify individuals who are asymptomatic and undiagnosed for liver damage.”

Researchers have found that liver cancer, NAFLD, hepatitis C and liver transplants are prevalent in 40-80% of people who have Type 2 diabetes and in 30-90% of people who are obese. Being overweight or obese is responsible for about 85% of fatty liver disease.

“Approximately 30,000 people die from liver cancer each year and these numbers have continued to rise in recent years,” says Lynn Gardner Seim, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, American Liver Foundation. “It is essential that patients at risk for liver cancer, including those who have previously been diagnosed with hepatitis C, NAFLD, NASH and other liver diseases, talk with their doctors and have a plan in place for getting screened.”

Traditional approaches to assessing liver health, such as liver biopsy and advanced radiological imaging, may not be cost effective nor accessible to the broader at-risk population. FibroScan directly measures physical properties of stiffness and fat liver to provide reproducible results and allow for both diagnosis and monitoring of liver stiffness and liver fat. It is also recognized worldwide as the reference for non-invasive liver diagnosis supported with more than 2,000 medical publications and 40 guideline recommendations.

About Echosens

Echosens, the developer of FibroScan^®, is an innovative high-technology company offering a full range of products and services supporting physicians in their assessment and management of patients with chronic liver diseases. FibroScan is supported by over 2,500 peer-reviewed publications and examinations are covered by Medicare, Medicaid and many insurance plans. For more information, please visit http://www.echosens.us and follow us on Twitter (@echosensNA).

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