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. 2023 May 24;15(11):2892.
doi: 10.3390/cancers15112892.

Is There Really a Difference in Outcomes between Men and Women with Hepatocellular Cancer?

Andrea Fa  1 , Denise M Danos  2 , Lauren Maniscalco  3 , Yong Yi  3 , Xiao-Cheng Wu  3 , Mary A Maluccio  1 , Quyen D Chu  4 , John M Lyons 3rd  1   5
Affiliations

Is There Really a Difference in Outcomes between Men and Women with Hepatocellular Cancer?

Andrea Fa et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a male-dominated disease. Currently, gender differences remain incompletely defined. Data from the state tumor registry were used to investigate differences in demographics, comorbidities, treatment patterns, and cancer-specific survival (HSS) among HCC patients according to gender. Additional analyses were performed to evaluate racial differences among women with HCC. 2627 patients with HCC were included; 498 (19%) were women. Women were mostly white (58%) or African American (39%)-only 3.8% were of another or unknown race. Women were older (65.1 vs. 61.3 years), more obese (33.7% vs. 24.2%), and diagnosed at an earlier stage (31.7% vs. 28.4%) than men. Women had a lower incidence of liver associated comorbidities (36.1% vs. 43%), and more often underwent liver-directed surgery (LDS; 27.5% vs. 22%). When controlling for LDS, no survival differences were observed between genders. African American women had similar HSS rates compared to white women (HR 1.14 (0.91,1.41), p = 0.239) despite having different residential and treatment geographical distributions. African American race and age >65 were predictive for worse HSS in men, but not in women. Overall, women with HCC undergo more treatment options-likely because of the earlier stage of the cancer and/or less severe underlying liver disease. However, when controlling for similar stages and treatments, HCC treatment outcomes were similar between men and women. African American race did not appear to influence outcomes among women with HCC as it did in men.

Keywords: Louisiana; disparities; hepatocellular cancer; incidence; women.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Kaplan–Meier cause-specific survival curves depicting cases of HCC in Louisiana, comparing Men vs. Women. Median survival times are indicated by the dashed lines.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Kaplan–Meier survival curves comparing Men vs. Women, controlling for therapy received. Median survival times are indicated by the dashed lines.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Kaplan–Meier survival curves comparing Men vs. Women controlling for stage of HCC at time of diagnosis. Median survival times are indicated by the dashed lines.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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