Cancer Gone Viral: The road from pain to liver cancer… and the cure

In 10 seconds? In this installment of our Cancer Gone Viral series, we talk about the Hepatitis C virus (HCV), the poster child of the opioid epidemic. It’s responsible for causing liver cancer but luckily, there’s a cure… if you catch it in time.

Finally some good news! But what’s the link between opioids and cancer? Ever since unethical opioid marketing practices started in the 1990s, North America has been caught in an opioid epidemic that has tragically claimed over 600,000 lives in the US and Canada. And if the opioid epidemic is the villain, Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is its sidekick, riding on its coattails and putting those chronically infected at a 10-20 times higher risk for liver cancer.