Clinical characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with cirrhosis: a comparative cohort study

Background and study aims: The epidemiology of cirrhosis has changed over the last two decades. We aimed to assess whether the epidemiology and clinical presentation of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) occurring in cirrhosis has changed.

Patients and methods: The patients were recruited from the Cirrhosis Registry. This database included patients with cirrhosis who had attended the outpatient’ liver clinic at the Centre Hospitalier Jolimont in La Louvière, Belgium, since January 1995. We extracted data on two cohorts of patients with cirrhosis collected over an identical time period and followed up for the same duration.

Results: Cohort 1 included 504 patients enrolled from 1995 to 2005; among them, 89 patients developed HCC during the defined follow-up period (group 1). Cohort 2 included 566 patients enrolled from 2006 to 2016, among whom 73 patients developed HCC during the defined follow-up period (group 2). When patients with HCC in both groups were compared, no differences were found in the age at HCC diagnosis, the test that alerted on the presence of HCC, the extension, and the stage of the lesion at diagnosis. In the group 1, hepatitis C virus-related HCC occurred in 53% of the cases compared with 18% in the group 2 (P<0.001). Alcohol-related HCC occurred in 27% in the group 1 compared with 60% in the group 2 (P<0.001). The prevalence of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease-related HCC accounted for 10% in all groups.

Conclusion: The general epidemiology of HCC has not changed; however the etiology of underlying cirrhosis has changed.

Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma, cirrhosis, epidemiology.