Takeaway
- Obesity and metabolic syndrome are associated with the risk of developing hepatobiliary cancer.
- Statin use seems protective against hepatobiliary cancer.
Why this matters
- The incidence of hepatobiliary cancer has been steadily increasing and there is no clarity if this increase is a consequence of an increase in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome.
Study design
- This case-control study used data from the Health Improvement Network (THIN) database to investigate the association between obesity/metabolic syndrome and hepatobiliary cancer.
- 4287 patients (male, 62%; female, 38%) with hepatobiliary cancers were matched with 8574 control patients.
- Funding: The South Staffordshire Medical Centre Charitable Trust.
Key results
- On univariate analysis, BMI, diabetes, alcohol consumption, ischaemic heart disease, smoking and hypertension (P<.001 for all) were associated with hepatobiliary cancer.
- On univariate analysis, statin use (P<.001) and non-smoking status (P=.05) were inversely associated with hepatobiliary cancer.
- Multivariate analysis revealed that BMI, hypertension, diabetes, ischaemic heart disease, and insulin use were associated with the risk of developing hepatobiliary cancer.
- In multivariate analysis, statin use and non-smoking status were inversely associated with hepatobiliary cancer.
- Increasing BMI, diabetes and hypertension were modelled as a single covariate and were seen to be significantly associated with hepatobiliary cancer (OR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.49-1.69, P<.001).
- This association persisted even after adjusting for increasing age (OR, 1.006; 95% CI, 1005-1.006; P<.001) and background liver cirrhosis (OR, 1.037; 95% CI, 1.03-1.044; P<.001).
Limitations
- This study was performed on a database and is subject to the quality of data within the data set.
References
References
