Background & Aims Environmental factors have been identified that affect risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but little is known about the effects of sex hormones on liver cancer development or outcome. We investigated whether menopause hormone therapy (MHT) affects risk, age at onset, or outcome of HCC. Methods We performed a case–control study of 234 female patients treated for HCC at a tertiary medical center and with 282 healthy women (controls), from January 1, 2004 through May 31, 2015. We collected detailed information on environmental exposures, ages of menarche and menopause, hysterectomies, and uses of birth control and MHT. We performed multivariable logistic and Cox regression analyses to determine the independent effects of factors associated with women on risk and clinical outcome in HCC. The primary outcomes were effect of MHT on HCC risk, the relationship between MHT with hepatitis virus infection on HCC development, and effect of MHT on age at HCC onset or survival after diagnosis of HCC. Results The estimated adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for HCC in women who ever used estrogen was 0.53 (95% CI, 0.32–0.88). This association was supported by the older age of HCC onset among estrogen users (mean, 64.5±0.9 years) vs non-users (mean, 59.2±1.1 years) (P=.001) and the reduced risk of HCC among long-term users (more than 5 years) (AOR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.20– 0.63). Users of estrogen also had a reduced risk for hepatitis-associated HCC: AOR for users, 4.37 (95% CI, 1.67–11.44) vs AOR for non-users, 17.60 (95% CI, 3.88–79.83). Estrogen use reduced risk of death from HCC (hazard ratio, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.40–0.77) (P=.01). Median overall survival times were 33.5 months for estrogen users (95% CI, 25.7–41.3 months) and 24.1 months for non-users (95% CI, 19.02–29.30 months) (P=.008). Conclusion In a case–control study of women with HCC vs female controls at a single center, we associated use of estrogen MHT with reduced risk of HCC and increased overall survival times of patients with HCC. Further studies are needed to determine the benefits of estrogen therapy for women and patients with HCC, and effects of tumor expression of estrogen receptor.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most deadly cancers worldwide. In patients with HCC, histopathogical differentiation is an important indicator of prognosis; however, because determination of HCC differentiation is difficult, the recently described immunohistochemical (IHC) marker glypican3 (GPC3) might assist in HCC prognostication.The goal of our study was to investigate GPC3's IHC staining pattern and define the relationship between its expression and patients' clinicopathologic features and overall survival. We retrieved clinical parameters from 101 pathologically diagnosed HCC patients' medical records and classified these patients into 4 clinical score categories (0–3) based on increasing GPC3 staining intensity and the percentage of stained tumor cells in their resection and biopsy specimens. Histopathological samples were well, moderately, and poorly differentiated in 33, 22, and 12 patients, respectively, and the GPC3 expression rate was 63%, 86%, and 92%,respectively. The median overall survival was 49.9 months (confidence interval (CI): 35.3–64.6 months) for clinical scores 0–1 and 30.7 months (CI: 19.4–41.9 months) for clinical scores 2–3. This difference was not statistically significant (P = .06) but showed a strong trend. In conclusion, a greater GPC3 expression is associated with a worse HCC prognosis and may be a promising prognostic marker.

Aim: The aim of the study was to examine the prevalence and amount of Fusobacterium nucleatum ( Fn), Porphyromonas gingivalis ( Pg) and Streptococcus gallolyticus ( Sg) in the saliva of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients and controls. Methods: PCR analyses performed in 71 CRC patients and 77 controls. Results: Saliva samples of patients had higher amounts of Fn (p = 0.001) and Sg (p < 0.001) compared with controls. Amount of Fn and Sg were lower in the microsatellite instability (+) group. Evaluation of salivary Sg amount by receiver operating characteristics analysis found to have diagnostic value for CRC (AUC: 0.84, 95% CI: 0.72–0.96). Conclusion: We found higher amounts of Fn and Sg in the saliva of CRC patients. Salivary Sg could helpful in distinction of CRC.