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Liveborn children and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma

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Clinical, animal, and epidemiologic evidence indicates that exogenous steroids influence the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and a recent study suggested that parity also may increase the risk of this tumor in women. The latter hypothesis was evaluated in the data from a case-control study which was carried out in Athens and covered 166 male and 19 female cases of HCC, and 381 male and 51 female hospital controls. Among males, there was no association between the number of liveborn children and risk of HCC, whereas among women, there was a suggestive positive association. Compared with women with one or two children, the relative risk for HCC was 0.6 among nulliparous women, 1.3 among those with three or four children and 1.7 among those with five or more children. The association of parity with risk of HCC was limited to women who were positive for hepatitis-B surface antigen (HBsAg) and was not confounded by hepatitis-C virus infection or tobacco smoking. The small number of HCC cases does not permit firm conclusions. If confirmed, however, these results would provide the foundation for a practical preventive advice that could be given to women who are positive for HBsAg.

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Authors
  1. Anastasia Tzonou
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  2. Xenophon Zavitsanos
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  3. Chung-cheng Hsieh
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  4. Dimitrios Trichopoulos
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Additional information

Drs Tzonou and Zavitsanos are with the Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Athens, Medical School, 11527 Athens, Greece. Drs Hsieh and Trichopoulos are with the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Address correspondence to Dr Trichopoulos. This work was supported in Athens by a grant to the University of Athens from the Greek Ministry of Health, and in Boston by a grant to Harvard University from the Leon Lemos Foundation.

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Tzonou, A., Zavitsanos, X., Hsieh, Cc. et al. Liveborn children and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma. Cancer Causes Control 3, 171–174 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00051657

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