Increased Prevalence of Metabolic Risk Factors in Asian Americans With Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: We used metabolic risk factors to estimate the prevalence and clinical significance of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in Asian Americans with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study of 824 consecutive Asian HCC patients at Stanford University Medical Center from 1998 to 2015. Patients were subdivided as: Chinese, other East Asian (Japanese and Korean), South East Asian (Vietnamese, Thai, and Laotian), Maritime South East Asian (MSEA: Malaysian, Indonesian, Filipino, and Singaporean), and South West Asian (Indian, Pakistani, and Middle Eastern). Metabolic risk factors studied were body mass index, hypertension, type II diabetes, and hyperlipidemia. RESULTS: Most patients were male (76%) with mean age 63 years. Metabolic risk factors were highly prevalent on presentation and increased over time (P<0.001), as did the prevalence of cryptogenic HCC (P<0.004). Compared with other Asian subgroups, MSEAs had the highest body mass index (26.3) and higher rates of type II diabetes (44% vs. 23% to 35%, P=0.004), hypertension (59% vs. 38% to 55%, P=0.04), and cryptogenic HCC (15% vs. 4% to 10%, P=0.01). They were more likely to be symptomatic on presentation (44% vs. 32% to 58%, P=0.07), less likely to present within Milan criteria (34% vs. 35% to 63%, P<0.0001), and trended toward decreased 10-year survival rates compared with other ethnic subgroups (9% vs. 25% to 32%, P=0.07). CONCLUSIONS: Metabolic risk factors were increasingly prevalent among Asian Americans with HCC. MSEAs, who had the highest incidence of these risk factors, had more advanced tumor stage and trended toward worse survival.

Sex differences in disease presentation, treatment and clinical outcomes of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: a single-centre cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Although sex differences in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk are well known, it is unclear whether sex differences also exist in clinical presentation and survival outcomes once HCC develops. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study of 1886 HCC patients seen in a US medical centre in 1998-2015. Data were obtained by chart review with survival data also by National Death Index search. RESULTS: The cohort consisted of 1449 male and 437 female patients. At diagnosis, men were significantly younger than women (59.9±10.7 vs 64.0±11.6, p<0.0001). Men had significantly higher rates of tobacco (57.7% vs 31.0%, p<0.001) and alcohol use (63.2% vs 35.1%, p<0.001). Women were more likely to be diagnosed by routine screening versus symptomatically or incidentally (65.5% vs 58.2%, p=0.03) and less likely to present with tumours >5 cm (30.2% vs 39.8%, p=0.001). Surgical and non-surgical treatment utilisation was similar for both sexes. Men and women had no significant difference in median survival from the time of diagnosis (median 30.7 (range=24.5-41.3) vs 33.1 (range=27.4-37.3) months, p=0.84). On multivariate analysis, significant predictors for improved survival included younger age, surgical or non-surgical treatment (vs supportive care), diagnosis by screening, tumour within Milan criteria and lower Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score, but not female sex (adjusted HR=1.01, CI 0.82 to 1.24, p=0.94). CONCLUSIONS: Although men have much higher risk for HCC development, there were no significant sex differences in disease presentation or survival except for older age and lower tumour burden at diagnosis in women. Female sex was not an independent predictor for survival.