THURSDAY, June 5 (HealthDay News) -- Diabetes doubles the risk
of liver cancer in patients with chronic hepatitis C with advanced
fibrosis, or cirrhosis, a Dutch study reports.
Researchers at the Erasmus MC University Medical Center in
Rotterdam analyzed data on 541 European and Canadian patients with
chronic hepatitis C with advanced cirrhosis. Of those patients, 85
had diabetes. Patients with more severe fibrosis were more likely
to have diabetes.
"The prevalence of diabetes mellitus was 10.5 percent for
patients with Ishak fibrosis score 4, 12.5 percent for Ishak-score
5 and 19.1 percent for Ishak-score 6," the researchers wrote.
The patients were followed for a median of four years. During
that time, 11 patients with diabetes and 27 patients without
diabetes developed liver cancer. The five-year liver cancer
occurrence rate was 11.4 percent and 5.0 percent, respectively. The
study also found that being male and older were significantly
associated with increased risk of liver cancer.
Among patients with diabetes, there was a trend toward higher
liver cancer risk as fasting glucose levels increased, which
suggests that hyperinsulinemia might explain the increased liver
cancer risk among diabetic patients, the study authors
suggested.
Whatever the mechanism, it's clear that diabetes increases the
risk of liver cancer in patients with chronic hepatitis C and
advanced cirrhosis, the researchers concluded.
The study was published in the June issue of the journal
Hepatology.
The American Liver Foundation has more about
liver cancer.
