Clinical features of hepatocellular carcinoma associated with autoimmune liver disease

Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and primary sclerotic cholangitis (PSC) form the triad of autoimmune liver diseases. However, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development in AIH as well as in PBC is a rare event. The common clinical features of HCC associated with AIH and PBC have not yet been extensively described.

A research team led by Dr. Takuya Watanabe from Japan addresses this question and their study will be published on January 14, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

A systematic review of the literature was conducted using the Japana Centra Revuo Medicina database. Then they compared the clinical features of these two sets of patients with the general Japanese HCC population. They found that HCC cases with AIH and PBC have four clinical features. That is: (1) HCC was more common in men than in women with AIH or PBC; (2) Many patients underwent chemolipiodolization (CL) or transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE); (3) Liver failure was the primary cause of death among patients in this study, followed by tumor rupture. (4) The survival interval between diagnosis and death was fairly short.

Although this study was retrospective, it is the first to date that highlights the common clinical features in HCC cases with AIH and PBC.

Reference: Watanabe T, Soga K, Hirono H, Hasegawa K, Shibasaki K, Kawai H, Aoyagi Y. Features of hepatocellular carcinoma in cases with autoimmune hepatitis and primary biliary cirrhosis. World J Gastroenterol 2009; 15(2): 231-239 http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/15/231.asp

Correspondence to: Takuya Watanabe, MD, PhD, Department of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, Medical Hospital, The Nippon Dental University School of Life Dentistry at Niigata, 1-8 Hamauracho, Chu-o-ku, Niigata 951-8580, Japan. nabetaku@dia-net.ne.jp

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H. pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2003-2000 IF: 3.318, 2.532, 1.445 and 0.993. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.

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