More Americans Are Dying of Cirrhosis and Liver Cancer

Deaths from alcoholic cirrhosis have soared among people ages 25 to 34.CreditJeff Swensen for The New York Times

Deaths from cirrhosis and liver cancer are rising dramatically in the United States.

From 1999 to 2016, annual cirrhosis deaths increased by 65 percent, to 34,174, according to a study published in the journal BMJ. The largest increases were related to alcoholic cirrhosis among people ages 25 to 34 years old.

From 2009 to 2016 there was a 10.5 percent annual increase on average in cirrhosis-related mortality among people ages 25 to 34.

Cirrhosis, irreversible scarring of the liver, has many causes, including alcohol consumption, obesity, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and hepatitis. Cirrhosis can lead to liver cancer and liver failure, both of which can be fatal.

Rates of cirrhosis in some groups declined from 1999 to 2008, but that trend reversed in 2009.

Through 2008, cirrhosis death rates among Native Americans, for example, were steady year-to-year. Starting in 2009, the rate increased by 4 percent annually.

Rates among African-Americans, which had been decreasing, jumped to an average annual increase of 1.7 percent from 2010 to 2016.

The authors of the new study, who relied on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, discovered geographic differences as well.

Rates of cirrhosis in the Northeast increased 1.6 percent annually on average from 2007 to 2016, while the South saw annual increases of 3.5 percent, the Midwest 3.1 percent and the West 3.0 percent. Only Maryland and the District of Columbia saw significant decreases in alcohol-related cirrhosis.

From 1999 to 2016, annual deaths from liver cancer doubled to 11,073. The average yearly increase was 2.1 percent, but the figure rose to 3.0 percent from 2008 to 2016.

Over that period, Native Americans, whites and African-Americans all saw increases of more than 2 percent a year. Among Asians and Pacific Islanders, on the other hand, rates declined 2.7 percent annually.

The lead author, Dr. Elliot B. Tapper, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Michigan, said that one explanation for the increases beginning in 2008 could be the economic turmoil that began that year. But he is not certain.

“These are the facts: people started dying at increased rates after 2008,” he said. “Young people are more likely to die of alcoholic cirrhosis, and we know that there is a model of despair in young unemployed men who are likely to abuse alcohol.”

“But if the answer turns out to be something different, that’s O.K. with me. Almost every one of these deaths, particularly in the young, is completely preventable.”