Clinical Characteristics and Difference at First Detection among Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients with Hepatitis B-, C- Virus, and Diagnosed as Non-B Non-C type

To investigate characteristic differences of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), 45 HCC patients with hepatitis B virus (HCC-B), 216 with hepatitis C virus (HCC-C) and 28 diagnosed as Non-B NonC type (HCC-N) were studied retrospectively. There was a male dominant difference irrespective of causes. The mean age for HCC-B, HCC-C, and HCC-N were 58 ± 9 years, 67 ± 8, and 71 ± 6, respectively. The detection age of HCC-B was younger with wider range, in contrast to older age with narrow range among HCC-C or HCC-N. Although the underlying liver status among HCC-B was broad spectrum from carriers without liver injury to cirrhosis, that among HCC-C was likely to be cirrhosis with liver damage in many cases. In contrast, many HCC-N had normal liver function except for heavy drinkers. HCC-B or-C was detected at relatively earlier stage through periodic screening, but HCC-N was often incidentally detected at an advanced stage. Considering these characteristic differences among each type of HCC, periodical screening including tumor markers and imaging studies should be performed for early HCC detection in hepatitis-B or -C carriers. It is also desirable for patients that are heavy drinkers, obese, or diabetic to undergo the same screening at least once a year, in consideration of rare but possible HCC