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Although those with alcohol-induced cirrhosis do not exhibit nearly as high a risk of HCC as those with HCV, further findings indicated that 1.1% of patients with cryptogenic, 3.2% with autoimmune or metabolic disease, and 4% with chronic viral hepatitis developed HCC within 10 years.
In a population-based cohort study published in Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, researchers from the United Kingdom investigated the overall risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma based on the different causes of cirrhosis.
Cirrhosis has long been thought to be a major risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common form of liver cancer. Cirrhosis also limits cancer treatments. But a new study has found that cancer incidence in patients with cirrhosis is lower than originally believed—at most, about 4%. Noting that there is little research that actually supports the cirrhosis-cancer link, researchers from The University of Nottingham set out to identify the cumulative incidence of HCC in individuals with cirrhosis.
Importantly, study results showed that, “the adjusted relative risk of HCC was increased two-fold to three-fold among people with viral and autoimmune/metabolic etiologies, compared to those with alcohol-associated cirrhosis,” the authors wrote in the study.