Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) inhibitors represent an effective treatment for severe psoriasis in hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients. The literature reports mainly on short-term treatment in patients with chronic hepatitis with minimum-to-moderate activity with an acceptable safety profile. We report the first 2 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) arising in HCV psoriatic patients with advanced liver disease during long-term treatment with etanercept. Our first patient, known to have had HCV infection for 41 years, developed an HCC after 21 months of therapy with etanercept (50 mg/week). The second patient, HCV+ for 20 years, was treated for 58 months with the same therapy, and despite no signs of liver function impairment was diagnosed with HCC. Both of them presented with cirrhosis, which was diagnosed 9 and 5 years earlier, respectively. It remains to be clarified whether there is any connection between psoriasis treatment with anti-TNF-α agents and the development of HCC in HCV-infected patients. Further long-term, follow-up studies and registries of HCV patients with mild/moderate activity may contribute to clarify this issue.

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Non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSC) are more frequent among men, but women (especially those aged < 40 years) have experienced steeper growth in their incidence rates in recent years. Hormonal factors were hypothesized to be playing a role in modulating NMSC risk, but the studies published to date provided conflicting results. We systematically reviewed and meta-analysed the studies focusing on the association between hormone-related characteristics (use of exogenous sex hormones, and aspects of menstrual and reproductive history) and the risk of NMSC among women. We included observational and experimental studies published in PubMed and EMBASE until February 2020. We calculated summary relative risk (SRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) by applying random effects models with maximum likelihood estimation, and used the I2 statistics to quantify the degree of heterogeneity of risk estimates across studies. Eleven independent studies encompassing a total of over 30,000 NMSC cases were included in quantitative analyses. No evidence of an increased NMSC risk emerged among ever vs. never users of oral contraceptives (SRR 1.13, 95% CI 0.88–1.45) or hormones for menopause (SRR 1.09, 95% CI 0.87–1.37). Likewise, age at menarche or at menopause and parity were not associated with NMSC risk. Heterogeneity across studies was low, and pooled results were comparable between NMSC subtypes. We found no evidence that hormonal factors play a role in the pathogenesis of NMSC among women.

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