Detection of high-risk polyps at screening colonoscopy indicates risk for liver and biliary cancer death

Hepatobiliary cancers share risk factors with colorectal cancer (CRC), but there are no combined screening programs for these conditions.

The aim of this study was to assess whether patients with high-risk colonic polyps are more likely to die from liver related tumors than patients with a negative colonoscopy.

In this retrospective analysis of mortality data, Austrian screening participants were included. The absolute risk for hepatobiliary cancer death was calculated using the cumulative incidence method. We aimed to identify an association with time to death of hepatobiliary cancer by Cox proportional hazards model.

343,838 colonoscopies performed between 01/2007 and 12/2020 were included in the analysis, of which 17,678 (5.14%) revealed high-risk polyps. Overall hepatobiliary cancer mortality was more than twice as high in patients with high risk polyps (cumulative incidence 0.39%, 95% CI 0.37-0.41%) compared to patients with a negative colonoscopy (cumulative incidence 0.17%, 95% CI 0.17-0.17%). When adjusting for age and sex, having high-risk polyps at screening colonoscopy was significantly associated with hepatobiliary cancer death (HR 1.83, 95% CI 1.29- 2.59, p < 0.001).

Patients with certain colonic polyp characteristics are at increased risk for mortality of liver malignancies. Further studies are needed to determine whether a structured additional screening for liver diseases and consecutive malignancies might be beneficial in these patients.