Comparison of clinical features and survival of patients with hepatitis B- and hepatitis C-associated hepatocellular carcinoma in Thailand.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are leading causes hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) worldwide. The aim of this study was to determine whether differences do exist between HBV- and HCV-associated HCC in terms of clinical, pathologic features and prognosis among Thai patients. The authors retrospectively reviewed the clinical data of 188 patients with pathologically proven HCC, who were admitted to Chulalongkorn Hospital between January 1997 and December 1999. Of these cases, there were 105 patients (55.9%) with hepatitis B surface antigen (HbsAg) positive, 19 patients (10.1%) with anti-HCV positive, and 2 patients (1.0%) with both markers positive. The authors found that the mean age of patients with HBsAg positive was significantly lower than that of anti-HCV positive (49.2 +/- 12.7 and 58.3 +/- 8.9 years, respectively, p = 0.003). In contrast, the mean serum alpha-fetoprotein level of HBsAg positive group was significantly higher than that of anti-HCV positive group (48,583.6 +/- 109,494.1 and 2,022.7 +/- 4,869.1 IU/ml, respectively, p = 0.001). However, there was no difference between the two groups in terms of the severity of underlying liver disease, tumor histology and morphology, clinical staging, and the overall survival rate of the patients. The authors concluded that, among Thai populations, the majority of clinical features and survival of HBV-associated HCC did not differ from those with HCV-associated HCC.