Hepatitis B and C Virus Infection is a Risk Factor for the Development of Cholangiocarcinoma

Abstract

Objective Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection may be involved in the development of cholangiocarcinoma. The prevalence of HBV and HCV infection was examined in patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ECC). Methods The levels of HBV surface antigens (HBsAg), antibodies against HBV core antigens (HBcAb) and hepatitis C virus antibodies (HCV-Ab) were determined in sera obtained from 145 consecutive patients (50 patients with ICC, 95 patients with ECC). Results The seroprevalence of HBsAg was 10% in the ICC patients and 4.2% in the ECC patients. The prevalence of HCV-Ab was 20% in the ICC patients and 7.4% in the ECC patients. Conclusion The prevalence of HBsAg and HCV-Ab is 0.8-2.2% and 1-2%, respectively, in the Japanese population living in the Tottori area. Furthermore, HBV and HCV infection is a possible risk factor for the development of cholangiocarcinoma. Therefore, the surveillance of ICC and ECC is needed in HBV and HCV carriers.

Hepatitis B virus is associated with the clinical features and survival rate of patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

“…In the current study, our findings demonstrated that 26.8% (26/97) of patients with ICC were HBsAg positive (group I), which is much higher than the incidence of patients with negative HBsAg (group II and group III). Our findings are consistent with recent studies in which the data suggested that seropositivity of HBsAg was one of the most important risk factors for HCC and that HBV infection is a possible risk factor for the development of cholangiocarcinoma [10,20,21].…”

“…One of our previous studies as well as several others suggested that HBV infection may be one of the reasons for the development of ICC [6,[9][10][11][12]. The impact of HBV infection on HCC has been studied extensively [13,14].…”

Epidemiology and Risk Factors of Cholangiocarcinoma

“…Recently, liver cirrhosis and viral hepatitis B and C have been recognized as risk factors for cholangiocarcinoma, especially intrahepatic disease [50,51,52]. Viral hepatitis-associated cholangiocarcinogenesis is most probably linked to chronic inflammation and increased cell proliferation [53].…”

HBV Infection Status and the Risk of Cholangiocarcinoma in Asia: A Meta-Analysis

“…A total of 39 studies with CCA matched the inclusion criteria in this meta-analysis, including 21 studies [11–31] for estimating the incidence rates of CCA, 14 studies [32–45] for unadjusted OR, and 7 studies [32, 33, 36, 39, 41, 42, 44] for adjusted OR analysis (Tables 1 and 2). Among the 39 studies, 26 studies were for ICC, including 13 studies [11–14, 16, 17, 19, 22, 23, 25, 26, 29, 31] for estimating the incidence rates of ICC, 11 studies [32, 34–36, 39–42, 44, 45, 47] for unadjusted OR analysis, and 7 studies [32, 35, 36, 39, 41, 42, 44] for adjusted OR analysis (Tables 3 and 4). Nine studies were for ECC, including 3 studies [11, 15, 20] for estimating the incidence rates of ECC, 5 studies [32, 35, 40, 43, 47] for unadjusted OR analysis, and 1 study [35] for adjusted OR analysis (Tables 4 and 5).…”