Epidemiology of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in hemophilia

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an important cause of increasing mortality in elderly hemophilia population. Majority of the patients treated with virus non-inactivated factor concentrates prepared from large plasma pools prior to 1985 have been found to be infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV), a major risk factor for HCC. A PubMed search of articles published until February 2015 was performed utilizing the keywords hemophilia, malignancy, neoplasm, cancer, mortality, ageing hemophilia, epidemiology, hepatocellular carcinoma and liver cancer and the relevant articles were included. Contradictory reports are available in literature on the incidence of cancers in general in hemophilia population. Almost all the studies where the incidence of HCC or mortality due to HCC have been analyzed in hemophilia population show that a vast majority of these patients are HCV infected. The incidence of HCC though higher in hemophilic population is related to the higher incidence of HCV infection and not due to the hemophilia phenotype.

Keywords: Hemophilia; Hepatitis C virus; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Incidence; Risk factors.