Hepatocellular carcinoma in Austria: aetiological and clinical characteristics at presentation

Abstract

Background and aims: The aetiology of chronic liver disease leading to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the clinical characteristics at the time of presentation vary considerably among different parts of the world and over time. The number of patients seen at our institution has increased as compared to a period 20 years earlier. We investigated baseline characteristics of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma such as cirrhosis, hepatitis virus markers, age at presentation and stage of the tumour in an area with low prevalence of viral hepatitis.

Methods: All 245 patients seen at the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of Vienna, Austria, from July 1991 to March 1998 were included in this retrospective study, and 19 different clinical characteristics were studied.

Results: The median age at detection of HCC was 63.3 years, and alcoholic liver disease (35.1%) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection (36.7%) were the most frequent underlying diseases. Both chronic alcoholism and HCV infection as risk factors were present in 6.9% of the patients. Liver cirrhosis was present in 86.5%. At the time of diagnosis, 43.5% had multi-nodular tumours. Of the remaining patients with a single nodule, only 10% had HCC < or =2 cm. Most of our patients presented at a late stage of the disease (TNM stage 3 29.4%, TNM stage 4 69.7%; Okuda stage 2 65.7%, Okuda stage 3 18.0%). Due to the late stage of the disease at the time of presentation, 145 patients (59.2%) received palliative care only, 24 (9.8%) underwent liver resection, 38 (15.5%) liver transplantation and 38 (15.5%) chemotherapy.

Conclusions: In this large single-centre series of HCC, the dominant contribution of HCV infection and chronic alcohol abuse as the underlying aetiology is documented. Diagnosis is usually made very late as reflected in the high proportion of patients in TNM stages 3 and 4 or Okuda stages 2 and 3. This resulted in a high percentage of patients who received palliative care only and very few who were eligible for treatment modalities with curative potential such as resection and liver transplantation.