Hepatitis C virus and risk of extrahepatic malignancies: a case-control study

Abstract

Epidemiological studies have demonstrated an increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Therefore, we investigated the risk of extrahepatic malignancies associated with HCV infection. Inpatients diagnosed with lymphoma, breast, thyroid, kidney, or pancreatic cancer (research group, n = 17,925) as well as inpatients with no malignancies (control group, n = 16,580) matched by gender and age were enrolled from The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University between January 2008 and December 2016. A case-control study was conducted by retrospective analysis. The difference in HCV prevalence was analyzed between the research group and the control group. Also, the research group was compared to the 2006 National Hepatitis C sero-survey in China. A total of 86 cases were positive for anti-HCV in the research group. Compared with the control group (103 cases were anti-HCV positive), no significant associations between extrahepatic malignancies and HCV infection were observed. Meanwhile, compared to the 2006 National Hepatitis C sero-survey, we observed a significant association between the chronic lymphoma leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL) and HCV seropositivity in females in the research group aged 1–59 years old (OR = 14.69; 95% CI, 1.94–111.01). HCV infection had a potential association with CLL/SLL in females aged 1–59 years old. Our study did not confirm an association between HCV infection and the risk of extrahepatic malignancies. In regions with a low HCV prevalence, the association between HCV infection and extrahepatic malignancies needs further investigation.

The Association Between Hepatitis C Virus Infection and Renal Cell Cancer, Prostate Cancer, and Bladder Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…A total of 644 studies using the search criteria were identi ed. Finally, we extracted 12 studies [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] based on the eligible criteria ( Supplementary Fig. S1).…”

Association of hepatitis C infection and risk of kidney cancer: A systematic review and meta‐analysis of observational studies

“…They comprised 11 cohorts 18-28 and 5 case-control studies [29][30][31][32][33] (1 of which was prospective 30 ), published or presented between 2006 and 2020. All studies except 2 were published as full-text articles [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] ; the Htoo et al and Younossi et al study were in abstract form. 25,26 These studies involved a total of 391,071 HCV patients and 38,333,839 non-HCV controls, originating from 9 different countries.…”

“…Four of the 16 studies were conducted in low-prevalence region of HCV, 20,21,24,30 7 were in intermediate-prevalence region, 18,19,22,25,26,28,32 and 5 in high-prevalence region. 23,27,29,31,33 The mean study age was 54.6 years, and the male patients constituted, on average, 60.5% of the population of each study.…”

“…Known risk factors for developing KC mainly include smoking, obesity, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, diabetes and hereditary factors 15,17 . The impact of HCV infection on the risk of KC is however debated, owing to the inconsistent results from epidemiological studies 18‐33 . Given the clinical relevance, but also the controversy of this topic, we conducted a meta‐analysis of all available observational studies to systematically evaluate the association between HCV infection and the risk of developing KC, overcoming the limitations of individual studies.…”

“…15,17 The impact of HCV infection on the risk of KC is however debated, owing to the inconsistent results from epidemiological studies. [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] Given the clinical relevance, but also the controversy of this topic, we conducted a meta-analysis of all available observational studies to systematically evaluate the association between HCV infection and the risk of developing KC, overcoming the limitations of individual studies.…”