Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 21, 2026
"Liver-on-a-Chip" Cultures of Primary Hepatocytes and Kupffer Cells for Hepatitis B Virus Infection
Published on: February 19, 2019
Analysis of Risk Factors Associated with the Development of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Chronic HBV-Infected Chinese:
Xiang Lyu1,2, Kui Liu3, Yongdi Chen4
1Department of Statistics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. alanlvruc@gmail.com.
Insights
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection significantly increases hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk in Chinese individuals. Key factors include high HBV DNA, non-antiviral treatment, alcohol, family history, and male gender.
Area of Science:
- Hepatology
- Oncology
- Public Health
Background:
- Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a primary risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in China.
- Approximately 9.3 million Chinese individuals have chronic HBV infections.
- Existing research on HCC risk factors in this population yields inconsistent results.
Purpose of the Study:
- To conduct a pooled analysis to precisely determine the association between various factors and HCC risk in chronic HBV-infected Chinese.
- To consolidate evidence from multiple studies to provide a more robust understanding of HCC development.
Main Methods:
- Systematic literature search of PubMed, CNKI, VIP, and Wanfang databases.
- Inclusion of studies evaluating factors influencing HCC risk in chronic HBV-infected Chinese.
- Meta-analysis using Review Manager 5.0 to calculate Odds Ratios (OR) and 95% Confidence Intervals (CI).
- Publication bias assessed using Begg's and Egger's tests.
Main Results:
- The meta-analysis included 27 studies with 3165 cases and 10,896 controls.
- Significant risk factors identified: non-antiviral treatment (OR 2.70), high HBV DNA levels (OR 2.61), alcohol consumption (OR 2.19), family history of HCC (OR 3.58), and male gender (OR 2.14).
- All identified factors showed statistically significant associations with increased HCC risk.
Conclusions:
- High HBV DNA levels, non-antiviral treatment, alcohol consumption, family history of HCC, and male gender are significant contributors to HCC risk in chronic HBV-infected Chinese.
- Behavioral interventions targeting non-antiviral treatment and alcohol consumption are recommended due to their high prevalence.
Abstract:
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major risk factor for the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in China. At present, there still are 9.3 million chronic HBV-infected Chinese. Numerous studies have explored the association between possible factors and hepatocellular carcinoma risk, however, the results remains inconsistent. Therefore, we did this pooled analysis so as to get a precise result. Here, we took the chronic HBV-infected Chinese as the object. We systematically searched for studies evaluating whether the proposed factors changed HCC risk in PubMed, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP database and Wanfang data. Odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated by Review Manager 5.0 and publication bias was determined by Begg's test and Egger's test. In total, 3165 cases and 10,896 controls from 27 studies were included in this meta-analysis. Our results showed that pooled OR with 95% CI for each of the factors investigated were: non-antiviral treatment 2.70 (2.01, 3.62), high HBV DNA levels 2.61 (1.73, 3.94), alcohol consumption 2.19 (1.53, 3.13), a family history of HCC 3.58 (2.53, 5.06) and male gender 2.14 (1.68, 2.73), respectively. Our meta-analysis supports that high HBV DNA levels, non-antiviral treatment, alcohol consumption, a family history of HCC and male gender contributed to the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in chronic HBV-infected Chinese from currently available evidence. Given the high prevalence of the non-antiviral treatment and alcohol drinking, behavior interventions for the two factors should be tackled first.
