Source: DGNews  |  Posted 6 years ago

By Crystal Phend

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- November 15, 2005 -- Body weight appears to influence the course of hepatitis C infection, with lower body weight being protective against eventual hepatocellular cancer, researchers said here at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD).

"Lean is important," said lead author Toshihiko Mizuta, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Saga Medical School, Saga, Japan.

Previous studies have shown that obesity is a risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), he said in his presentation on November 13[^]th[].

Dr. Mizuta and colleagues conducted a retrospective analysis of records from 150 Japanese patients with hepatocellular cancer and hepatitis C to see if there was a correlation between weight at time of diagnosis and outcome.

Body mass index (BMI) categories were: lean (under 22 kg/m[^]2[]), normal (22 to 25 kg/m[^]2[]), overweight (25 to 28 kg/m[^]2[]), and obese (over 28 kg/m[^]2[]).

Fifty-seven lean patients were included in the study as well as 56 normal, 29 overweight and 8 obese patients. Lean patients were significantly older than normal or overweight patients at first incidence of HCC (68.2 years, 64.7, 63.3 and 66.6, respectively).

They also had statistically better liver function compared to normal BMI patients as measured by amino alanine transferase levels, which reflect liver damage at higher enzyme levels (64.0 IU/L vs. 80.9). However, there was no significant difference between other groups and, in fact, a reverse effect was seen with increasing BMI (74.6 IU/L for overweight and 70.6 for obese).

Two markers of liver function generally worsened with increasing BMI -- serum albumin and prothrombin activity.

Serum albumin, which decreases by insufficient liver function, was significantly better in lean patients compared to overweight and obese patients (3.65 g/dL vs. 3.46 and 3.23, respectively).

Prothrombin activity, a marker of the liver's protein synthesis ability that decreases with hepatic damage, was significantly worse in overweight and normal BMI groups on average than in the lean group (61.0% and 67.5 vs. 74.1). Although the trend did not directly hold for the obese group (65.9%), this could be due to the small number of patients in the group.

However, obesity patients were significantly more likely to have a poor prognosis of early HCC. Univariate analysis found that obesity increased the risk by more than 7 times.

Obesity was the only predictive factor in the multivariate analysis, with an odds ratio of 4.05. The cumulative survival rate was also significantly lower for obese patients.

The authors concluded that BMI influences the onset age of HCC and hepatic function.

[Presentation title: Body Mass Index Influences Hepatic Function and Survival Prognosis in Patients with HCV-related Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Poster 463]