Etiologies of cirrhosis by ethnicities of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Abstract

515 Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. While there are several factors that can impact patient outcomes, ethnicity remains a major contributor towards disease incidence and the expected clinical course. There are various etiologies that can lead to the development of HCC among different ethnic groups, though further studies are required to identify the most pertinent risk factors in recent years. Methods: This was a single center, retrospective study in HCC patients to identify differences in cirrhosis etiologies based on ethnicity. All patients were diagnosed with HCC between March 2014 and April 2022. Possible causes of cirrhosis included alcohol, hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and other chronic liver disease. Results: A total of 276 patients were included in this study. For ethnic background, there were 97 Latino, 97 White, 50 Asian, 16 Black, and 16 patients of other ethnicities. With regards to significant differences in the etiologies of cirrhosis, 58 patients (59.8%) of White ethnicity were found to have cirrhosis related to HCV compared to 71 patients (39.7%) of all other ethnic groups (p = 0.002). In addition, when comparing Latino to non-Latino patients, there was a greater proportion of patients with cirrhosis due to NAFLD (24.7% vs 10.1%, p = 0.002) and cirrhosis from alcohol consumption (24.7% vs 10.1%, p = 0.002). HBV also varied significantly by ethnicity with 16 Asian patients (32%) found to have HBV cirrhosis compared to 5 patients (2.2%) of other ethnic groups (p <0.001). See table for additional details. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates significant differences in the cirrhosis etiologies of HCC patients depending on ethnicity. With the incidence and mortality rates of HCC continuing to rise worldwide, it is important for clinicians to be aware of these differences so that the appropriate preventative measures can be pursued.[Table: see text]