Risk factors and the effect of interferon therapy in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma: A multivariate analysis in 343 patients

Abstract

The aims of the present study were to clarify the risk factors for the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and to investigate the effectiveness of interferon (IFN) therapy. We retrospectively studied 343 patients who had been admitted to our hospital; 161 with chronic hepatitis, 49 with liver cirrhosis, 42 with chronic hepatitis bearing HCC and 91 with liver cirrhosis bearing HCC. The mean (±SD) observation period was 41.6 ± 31.1 months. The mean age of HCC and non‐HCC patients was 63.5 ± 7.6 and 56.9 ±12.5 years, respectively (P< 0.001). The HCV genotype II (1b) was the most prevalent genotype (92.5%) in HCC patients and the mean age was highest among patients with this genotype (63.6 ± 7.7 years). Multivariate analysis identified age (P< 0.001), the male gender (PPPP<0.01) by the person‐year method. The low incidence of HCC in patients treated with IFN suggests that IFN may prevent the development of HCC.