Hepatitis C virus infection and risk of cancer: a population-based cohort study

Abstract

Background:Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with an increased risk of primary liver cancer; however, 5- and 10-year risk estimates are needed. The association of HCV with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is uncertain and the association with other cancers is unknown.Method:We conducted a nationwide, population-based cohort study of 4,349 HCV-infected patients in Denmark, computing standardized incidence ratios (SIR) of cancer incidence in HCV infected patients compared with cancer incidence of the general population. We calculated 5- and 10-year risks of developing cancer, stratifying our analyses based on the presence of HIV coinfection and cirrhosis.Results:We recorded an increased risk of primary liver cancer (SIR: 76.63 [95% CI: 51.69–109.40]), NHL (SIR: 1.89 [95% CI: 0.39–5.52]), and several smoking- and alcohol-related cancers in HCV infected patients without HIV coinfection. HCV-infected patients without HIV coinfection had a 6.3% (95% CI: 4.6%–8.7%) risk of developing cancer and 2.0% (95% CI: 1.1%–3.8%) risk of developing primary liver cancer within 10 years.Conclusion:We confirmed the association of HCV infection with primary liver cancer and NHL. We also observed an association between HCV infection and alcohol- and smoking-related cancers.

Prevalence of viral hepatitis (B and C) serological markers in healthy working population

“…HCV causes chronic infection in up to 70 % of the infected individuals. HCV is one of the major causes of fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, determining an increase of the mortality among these patients (2,(4)(5)(6)(7). The prevalence of infection by HCV in the European countries ranges from 0.1 to 5 % (2-9).…”

Hepatitis C infection and renal cell carcinoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The statistical heterogeneity was high with an I 2 of 77%. The association between RCC and HCV was marginally insignificant after the sensitivity analysis including only studies with confounder adjustment[16,18-20,22] with a pooled RR of 1.50 (95%CI: 0.93-2.42, I 2 =64%), as shown in Figure 2.…”

“…Additionally, 189 articles were excluded (35 articles were not observational studies, and 154 articles did not describe the outcomes of interest, Macleod et al[27]’s study did not contain data on specific viral hepatitis{Macleod, 2013 #83}). Finally, seven observational studies (4 cohort and 3 case-controlled studies) with 196826 patients were included in the meta-analysis[16-22]. Item S2 describes the study selection flow.…”

“…Secondary to the oncogenic nature of Hepatitis C, several studies have linked chronic infection with an increased risk for development of RCC[16-22]. However, the findings from these studies were contradictory.…”

The Relationship between Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Polymorphisms and Hepatitis C Virus Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…6 There are various kinds of consequences after infection: some will remain asymptomatic, however, other patients will have severe diseases, which may result in necrosis of liver cells, liver fibrosis, dysfunction, cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and finally lead to death. [7][8][9] There are a number of factors, such as age, sex, alcohol consumption, viral genotype, individual's genotype, routes of infection, duration of infection, and complication of other diseases (such as uremia), that had been conceived a variable significance in determining the natural history and the consequence of HCV infection, including spontaneous clearance of the virus and all the different consequences caused by persistent infection.…”