Alcoholism and liver cirrhosis in the etiology of primary liver cancer

✍ Scribed by Hans-Oiov Adami; Ann W. Hsing; Joseph K. McLaughlin; Dimitrios Trichopoulos; David Hacker; Anders Ekbom; Ingemar Persson

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 591 KB
• Volume: 51
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.2910510611

✦ Synopsis

The aim of this study was to determine the risk of developing primary liver cancer in patients with a diagnosis of alcoholism, liver cirrhosis, or both. Three population-based, mutually exclusive cohorts were defined on the basis of hospital discharge diagnoses between I965 and 1983. Complete follow-up through I984-excluding the first year of follow-up-showed that among 8,5 I7 patients with a diagnosis of alcoholism, I3 cancers occutred, vs. 4.2 expected (standardized incidence ratio (SIR) = 3.1; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.6 to 5.3); among 3,589 patients with liver cirrhosis, 59 cancers occurred, vs. I .7 expected (SIR = 35. I; 95% CI = 26.7 to 45.3), and among 836 patients with both diagnoses, I I cancers occurred, vs. 0.3 expected (SIR = 34.3; 95% CI = 17. I to 6 I .3). Thus, alcoholism alone entailed a moderately

increased risk and alcoholism with liver cirrhosis did not increase the high relative risk for liver cancer more than cirrhosis alone. We conclude that alcohol intake may be a liver carcinogen only by being causally involved in the development of cirrhosis; and further, that the risk of developing liver cancer following cirrhosis in this population is similar to or higher than that after chronic hepatitis-B-virus infection in other Western countries.