Trends in hepatocellular carcinoma incident cases in Japan between 1996 and 2019

Abstract

We examined the epidemiological trends, including the distribution of sex, age, and disease etiology, in HCC incident cases, over 24 years. Data of 20,547 HCC patients (1996-2019) were analyzed in this prospective study. We divided the study period into four 6-yearly quarters. HCC etiology was categorized as hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, HBV + hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, HCV infection, and both negative (non-BC). The incident cases of HCC per quarter of the study period were 4311 (21.0%), 5505 (26.8%), 5776 (28.1%), and 4955 (24.1%), sequentially. Overall, 14,020 (68.2%) patients were male. The number of HCC cases in patients < 60 years, 60-69 years, 70-79 years, and ≥ 80 years were 3711 (18.1%), 6652 (32.4%), 7448 (36.2%), and 2736 (13.3%), respectively. The average age of newly-diagnosed patients increased in each quarter. HCC was associated with HBV, HBV + HCV, and HCV infections and non-BC in 2997 (14.6%), 187 (0.9%), and 12,019 (58.5%), and 5344 (26.0%) cases, respectively. The number of HCV-associated cases decreased in each quarter, while that of non-BC-associated cases increased. HCC incident cases tend to increase in the elderly and in non-BC patients; in contrast, HCC incident cases due to HCV tend to decrease.

Figure 1

Age distribution of new hepatocellular carcinoma cases. 65.4 ± 9.2 years during 1996–2001 to 67.4 ± 9.8 years during 2002–2007, P < 0.0001; 67.4 ± 9.8 years during 2002–2007 to 69.5 ± 10.1 years during 2008–2013, P < 0.0001; and 69.5 ± 10.1 years during 2008–2013 to 71.5 ± 10.1 years during 2014–2019, P < 0.0001, respectively (mean ± standard deviation).

Figure 2

Correlation between patient age and disease etiology. 60.2 ± 10.9 years in HBV to 63.6 ± 10.0 years in HBV + HCV, P < 0.0001; 63.6 ± 10.0 years in HBV + HCV to 69.7 ± 8.8 years in HCV, P < 0.0001; 69.7 ± 8.8 years in HCV to 71.0 ± 9.9 years in non-BC, P < 0.0001, respectively (mean ± standard deviation).