Personal Comorbidities and their Subsequent Risks for Liver, Gallbladder and Bile Duct Cancers
Menée à l'aide de données 1987-2018 du registre suédois des patients hospitalisés portant sur 18 598 patients atteints d'un cancer hépatobiliaire (âge moyen au diagnostic : 69,9 ans), cette étude analyse l'association entre 13 comorbidités et le risque de développer un carcinome hépatocellulaire, un cancer de la vésicule biliaire, un cholangiocarcinome ou un cancer ampullaire
Many environmental risk factors for hepatobiliary cancers are known but whether they are associated with specific cancer types is unclear. We present here a novel approach of assessing standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) of previously diagnosed comorbidities for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), gallbladder cancer (GBC), cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) and ampullary cancer. The 13 comorbidities included alcohol and non-alcohol related liver disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, gallstone disease, viral and other kinds of hepatitis, infection of bile ducts, hepatic and other autoimmune diseases, obesity and diabetes. Patients were identified from the Swedish Inpatient Register from 1987 to 2018, and their cancers were followed from 1997 onwards. SIRs for HCC were 80-100 in men and women diagnosed with hepatitis C virus and they were also > 10 in patients diagnosed with hepatitis B virus, other kind of hepatitis, hepatic autoimmune disease and non-alcohol related liver disease. Many of these risks, as well as alcohol related liver disease, were either specific to HCC or were shared with intrahepatic CCA. For GBC, CCA and ampullary cancer infection of bile ducts was the main risk factor. Gallstone disease, non-hepatic autoimmune diseases and diabetes were associated with all hepatobiliary cancers. The limitations of the study include inability to cover some rare risk factors and limited follow-up time. Many of the considered comorbidities are characterized by chronic inflammation and/or overt immune disturbance in autoimmune diseases. The results suggest that local chronic inflammation and a related immune disturbance is the carcinogenic trigger for all these cancers.