Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a very common disease. To better understand the link between NAFLD and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine conducted a large Retrospective study published in “Gastroenterology”.
In this study, the research team studied groups from the Veterans Health Administration and followed up for about 11 years. The study included 296,707 patients known to have NAFLD and 296,707 patients without NAFLD. Among NAFLD patients, 490 have HCC, and their risk of developing HCC is much higher than those without NAFLD.
Dr. Fasiha Kanwal, professor and chief of medicine, and colleagues found that NAFLD patients with liver cirrhosis have the highest incidence of HCC each year. The risk of HCC increases with age, and the elderly Spanish with liver cirrhosis is HCC High-risk groups.
“This study provides valuable and powerful information on which of the millions of NAFLD patients are at risk for HCC. This information is an important step forward in our understanding of the disease. For researchers, clinical Doctors and patients have important reference value, ” said Dr. Hashem EI-Serag, professor of gastroenterology at Baylor Medicine and senior author of the paper . Moreover, the results of this study also provide guidance for monitoring and risk adjustment for people at increased risk of liver cancer, such as patients with cirrhosis or diabetes.
