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Published on: November 30, 2022
Clinical Profiles of Biobank-Linked and Non-Biobank Patients with Liver Cancer: An Exploratory Analysis Using
Chun-Ying Chen1, Ru-Yu Huang1, Yi-Hsin Yang1,2,3
1National Institute of Cancer Research, National Health Research Institutes, Tainan, Taiwan.
Purpose:
Patients represented in biobank cohorts may differ from the broader registry-defined cancer population. This study aimed to describe demographic, clinical, and survival differences between biobank-linked and non-biobank-linked patients with liver cancer in a nationwide cancer registry.
Patients And Methods:
This retrospective, registry-based exploratory study linked patients from the Taiwan Liver Cancer Network (TLCN), a multicenter liver cancer biobank, to the Taiwan Cancer Registry (TCR) database and identified patients diagnosed with liver cancer (ICD-O-3: C22) from 2007 to 2020. Comorbidities and survival follow-up were obtained from the National Health Insurance Research Database and the Death Registry. Patients were classified as TLCN-linked or non-TLCN-linked according to linkage status with the TLCN. Group differences were described using absolute standardized mean differences (ASMDs), and overall survival was summarized using Kaplan-Meier estimates and compared using Log rank tests.
Results:
We compared 4790 TLCN-linked patients with 126547 non-TLCN-linked patients identified in the cancer registry. Using an ASMD threshold of 0.20, several meaningful between-group differences were observed. Compared with non-TLCN-linked patients, TLCN-linked patients were younger and had higher proportions of men (79.0% vs 69.9%), early stage (stages I-II: 78.6% vs 57.2%), and surgery as first-course treatment (94.8% vs 50.75%), as well as a lower proportion of recorded metastasis (1.5% vs 12.6%). Differences in most comorbidities were small by ASMD. Among patients who received surgery, median overall survival was longer in TLCN-linked patients than in non-TLCN-linked patients across stages; for example, among stage I patients, median survival was 10.89 versus 7.27 years, respectively.
Conclusion:
Although TLCN biospecimens and associated data provide an important resource for translational research, TLCN-linked patients differed from non-TLCN-linked patients in the nationwide registry. These findings highlight the importance of considering the composition of the TLCN cohort when interpreting the applicability of future studies using TLCN biospecimens and associated data.
