MASLD and Hepatic/Extrahepatic Cancers: Understanding the Complex Relationship

The importance of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) as a driver of carcinogenesis has been under-reported in the literature. Currently, the increasing prevalence of MASLD is considered to be the most relevant factor in the rising incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but other gastrointestinal cancers and a number of hormone-sensitive tumors also appear to show an increasing correlation with components of the metabolic syndrome and associated MASLD. Surveillance strategies, stratified according to individual tumor risk, need to be urgently agreed in international guidelines in the context of MASLD in order to ensure early tumor detection and subsequent curative treatment for these patients. In the future, it will be particularly important to identify treatment concepts for patients that are adapted to the metabolic comorbidities associated with MASLD.