Talk to the Veterans Crisis Line now
U.S. flag
An official website of the United States government
Veterans Benefits and Health Care About VA Find a VA Location

VA Health Systems Research

Go to the VA ORD website
Go to the QUERI website

HSR&D Citation Abstract

Search | Search by Center | Search by Source | Keywords in Title

Risk of Hepatocellular Cancer in Patients With Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

Kanwal F, Kramer JR, Mapakshi S, Natarajan Y, Chayanupatkul M, Richardson PA, Li L, Desiderio R, Thrift AP, Asch SM, Chu J, El-Serag HB. Risk of Hepatocellular Cancer in Patients With Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. Gastroenterology. 2018 Dec 1; 155(6):1828-1837.e2.

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions


Abstract:

BACKGROUND and AIMS: There are limited data on the risk of hepatocellular cancer (HCC) in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We aimed to estimate the risk of incident HCC among patients with NAFLD. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study from a total of 130 facilities in the Veterans Health Administration. Patients with NAFLD diagnosed between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2008 were included and followed until HCC diagnosis, death, or December 31, 2015. We also identified a sex- and age-matched control cohort without NAFLD. We ascertained all new HCC cases from the Central Cancer Registry and manual chart reviews. We calculated incidence rates for HCC by NAFLD status, as well as in subgroups of NAFLD patients. We used competing risk models to compare the risk of HCC in patients with NAFLD vs those without NAFLD. We reviewed electronic medical records of all HCC cases that developed in NAFLD patients without cirrhosis. RESULTS: We compared 296,707 NAFLD patients with 296,707 matched controls. During 2,382,289 person-years [PYs] of follow-up, 490 NAFLD patients developed HCC (0.21/1000 PYs). HCC incidence was significantly higher among NAFLD patients vs controls (0.02/1000 PYs; hazard ratio, 7.62; 95% confidence interval, 5.76-10.09). Among patients with NAFLD, those with cirrhosis had the highest annual incidence of HCC (10.6/1000 PYs). Among patients with NAFLD cirrhosis, HCC risk ranged from 1.6 to 23.7 per 1000 PYs based on other demographic characteristics; risk of HCC was the highest in older Hispanics with cirrhosis. In medical record reviews, 20% of NAFLD patients with HCC had no evidence of cirrhosis. CONCLUSIONS: Risk of HCC was higher in NAFLD patients than that observed in general clinical population. Most HCC cases in NAFLD developed in patients with cirrhosis. The absolute risk of HCC was higher than the accepted thresholds for HCC surveillance for most patients with NAFLD cirrhosis.




Questions about the HSR website? Email the Web Team

Any health information on this website is strictly for informational purposes and is not intended as medical advice. It should not be used to diagnose or treat any condition.