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Mexican-Americans living in the United States demonstrated more risk factors for liver cancer than their counterparts in Mexico, according to results of a study presented at the 10th AACR Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved, held here Sept. 25-28.
“Liver cancer incidence and mortality have been on the rise in the United States, despite a steady decline in overall cancer incidence and mortality over the past 15 years,” said the study’s lead author, Yvonne N. Flores, PhD, associate professor at the UCLA Cancer Prevention and Control Research Center, Fielding School of Public Health and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity. “Chronic liver disease, which can lead to liver cancer, is a leading cause of mortality in Mexico and among people of Mexican descent living in the United States. We wanted to compare the prevalence of risk factors in these two groups.”
Flores and colleagues examined data for Mexican-Americans living in the U.S. from the 1999-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; and data from Mexican residents from the Health Worker Cohort Study, conducted from 2004 to 2006, with follow-up conducted from 2011 to 2013. The total study sample included 13,798 individuals—9,485 Mexicans residing in Mexico; 2,324 U.S.-born Mexican-Americans living in the United States; and 1,989 Mexican-Americans who were born in Mexico and now live in the United States.
They evaluated the participants for the primary known risk factors for liver disease, including infection with hepatitis B or C virus, metabolic syndrome, high total cholesterol, diabetes, overall obesity, abdominal obesity, and heavy alcohol use.
After controlling for age, marital status, and education level, the results showed that Mexican-American men and women were more likely to be obese (overall and abdominal obesity), diabetic, and heavy drinkers than those born and living in Mexico.
The results were reversed for hepatitis B or C infection. The study showed that Mexican-American men and women were less likely to have hepatitis B or C infections than their counterparts in Mexico.
Read more…https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-09-people-mexican-decent-liver-cancer.html