Review Article

Main Risk Factors of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Table 1

Studies which have evaluated the association between type 2 diabetes and risk of HCC.

StudyStudy characteristicsDiabetes diagnosisCovariate adjustment consideredMain findings

Huo et al., Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol 2003; 15 : 1203-8Prospective study: 239 HCC patients (16.3% of whom had DM). Mean follow-up: 2.6 yearsFasting glucose ≥126 mg/dL or 2-hour postload glucose ≥200 mg/dL, or past historyAge, sex, tumor size, anti-HCV-Ab positivity, HBeAg-positivity, cirrhosis, alcohol intake, alpha-fetoprotein, albumin, bilirubinDM did not affect long-term survival in HCV-related HCC but was a recurrence-independent prognostic factor for HBV-related HCC
Coughlin et al., Am J Epidemiol 2004; 159 : 1160-7Population cohort study: 467,922 men and 588,321 women without history of cancer at baseline. Mean follow-up: 16 yearsSelf-reportedBMIDM was associated with increased risk of incident HCC only in men
El-Serag et al., Gastroenterology 2004; 126 : 460-8Prospective study: 73,643 patients with DM and 650,620 patients without DM. Mean follow-up: 5 yearsSelf-reportedAlcoholic liver disease, viral chronic hepatitis, demographic variablesDM was associated with an increased risk of incident HCC. DM carried the highest risk among patients with a follow-up longer than 10 years
Davilla et al., Gut 2005; 54 : 533-9Population-based case-control study: 2,061 HCC patients (of whom 43% with DM) and 6,183 noncancer controls (of whom 19% with DM)Electronic registerAge, sex, race, HCV, HBV, alcoholic liver disease, and hemochromatosisDM was associated with a nearly threefold increased risk of HCC
Inoue et al., Arch Intern Med 2006; 166 : 1871-7Prospective study: 97,771 Japanese adult individuals followed up for cancer incidence over 5 years. At baseline, 4.7% of them had DMSelf-reportedAge, study area, BMI, prior cardiovascular disease, smoking, alcohol intake, leisure-time physical activity, green vegetable intake, coffee intakeDM was associated with increased risk of total cancer and cancer in specific sites, including HCC
El-Serag et al. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2006; 4 : 369-80Meta-analysis: a total of 26 studies (of which 13 were case-control studies and 13 were cohort studies), inclusive of approximately 3 million individualsSelf-reportedAlcohol intake, chronic viral hepatitis, diet, BMIAmong 13 cohort studies, DM was associated with an increased risk of HCC
Kawamura et al., J Gastroenterol Hepatol 2008; 23 : 1739-46Prospective study: 40 consecutive HCC patients (with HCC associated with non-B, non-C hepatitis) and later underwent surgical resection or radiofrequency ablation. Prevalence of DM was 45%. Mean follow-up: 5 yearsFasting glucose ≥126 mg/dL or past historyAge, sex, dyslipidemia, smoking, alcohol intake, history of blood transfusion, state of liver disease (chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis), AST, albumin, bilirubin, alpha-fetoprotein, prothrombin time, tumor size, multiplicity, hypervascularity, and portal vein invasion of HCCDM was a significant predictor of tumor recurrence after potentially curative therapy for HCC
Donadon et al., World J Gastroenterol 2009; 15 : 2506-11Case-control study: 465 HCC patients, 618 with cirrhosis, and 490 control subjects. The prevalence of DM was 31.2% in HCC, 23.3% in cirrhotic patients, and 12.7% in control groupSelf-reportedAge, sex, BMI, alcohol abuse, HBV, and HCVDM was an independent risk factor for HCC. Among male patients with DM, there was a positive association of HCC with insulin/sulphonylurea treatment and an inverse association with metformin
Hassan et al., Cancer 2010; 116 : 1938-46Hospital-based case-control study: 420 patients with HCC and 1,104 healthy controls. The prevalence of DM was 33.3% in patients with HCC and 10.4% in controlsSelf-reportedAge, sex, race, educational level, smoking, alcohol intake, HCV, HBV, family history of cancerDM increased the risk of HCC. Treatments with sulfonylureas or insulin were associated with higher HCC risk, whereas treatments with metformin or glitazones were associated with lower HCC risk
Hense et al., Diabetol Metab Syndr 2011; 3 : 15Community-based study: 26,742 DM patients, who were 40 to 79 years old and resided in the Muenster district. Mean follow-up: 3.3 yearsSelf-reportedSex, diabetes duration, BMI, insulin treatmentRisk of any incident cancer in DM was increased, in particular for HCC. Insulin therapy was related to higher cancer risk, while metformin was not
Johnson et al., Diabetologia 2011; 54 : 2263-71Population-based retrospective cohort study: 185,100 individuals with DM and 185,100 without DM, matched by sex and age. Mean follow-up: 10 yearsElectronic registerAge, sex, socioeconomic status, number of physician visits, year of diagnosisDM was associated with increased risk of selected cancers, including HCC
Li et al., Int J Canc 2012; 131 : 1197-202Hospital-based case-control study: 1,105 patients with HBV-related HCC and 5,170 patients with chronic HBV. The whole prevalence of DM was 6.7%Fasting glucose ≥126 mg/dL or past historyAge, family history of HCC, city of residence, HBV-Ag, and cirrhosisDM was associated with increased risk of HCC, only in women
Wang et al., Int J Cancer 2012; 130 : 1639-48Meta-analysis: a total of 25 cohort studies, enrolling 1,283,112 persons. Mean follow-up: 8.8 yearsSelf-report, medical recordsGeographic location, alcohol intake, history of cirrhosis, or HBV and HCV infectionsDM was associated with increased risk of incident HCC and higher HCC mortality. Longer diabetes duration and use of sulfonylureas or insulin were associated with increased risk of HCC. Metformin treatment was protective
Wang et al., Diabetes Metab Res Rev 2012; 28 : 109-22Meta-analysis: 17 case-control studies (a total of nearly 6,000 HCC cases and 74,000 controls) and 32 cohort studies (a total of nearly 6,500,000 individuals)Self-report, medical recordsBMI, prior hepatitis, cirrhosis, alcohol intake, smoking, treatment, duration of diabetesThe combined risk estimate of all studies showed a significant increased risk of HCC among DM individuals. In addition, meta-analysis of 7 cohort studies found a significant increased risk of HCC mortality for individuals with DM compared to those without
Lai et al., Am J Gastroenterol 2012; 107 : 46-52Population-based cohort study: 19,349 newly diagnosed DM patients and 77,396 control subjects without DM. Mean follow-up: 5 yearsElectronic registerAge, sex, cirrhosis, alcoholic liver damage, viral hepatitisDM was associated with increased risk of incident HCC. Use of metformin or glitazones was associated with reduced HCC risk
Schlesinger et al., Ann Oncol 2013; 24 : 2449-55Community-based cohort study: 363,426 participants, after excluding those with cancer at baseline. Mean follow-up: 8.5 yearsSelf-reportedAge, sex, center, education level, smoking, alcohol intake, BMI, waist-to-height ratioDM was independently associated with higher risk of incident HCC and biliary tract cancer. HCC risk was higher in those treated with insulin. Results were similar in HCV/HBV-negative individuals
Zheng et al., PLoS One 2013; 8:e84776Hospital-based retrospective case-control study: 1,568 participants of whom 716 patients were diagnosed with benign liver diseases and 852 patients were diagnosed with HCC. The prevalence of DM was 7.6%Fasting glucose ≥126 mg/dL or 2-hour postload glucose ≥200 mg/dL, HbA1c ≥ 6.5%Age, sex, HBV and HCV infections, cirrhosis, gallstone disease, cholinesterase, alkaline phosphataseDM was associated with increased risk of HCC. However, there was a significant interaction between DM and HBV on HCC occurrence
Koh et al., Br J Cancer 2013; 108 : 1182-8Community-based cohort study: 63,257 middle-aged and older individuals. The prevalence of DM was 8.6%. Mean follow-up: 14 yearsSelf-reportedAge, sex, BMI, recruitment year, education level, smoking, alcohol intake, consumption of coffee and teaDM was associated with an increased risk of incident nonviral HCC
Miele et al., Gastroenterol Res Pract 2015; 2015 : 570356Hospital-based case-control study: 224 HCC patients and 389 controls. The prevalence of DM was 19.7%Self-reportedAge, sex, smoking, alcohol intakeDM was associated with increased risk of HCC. Treatment with any glucose-lowering drugs was not associated with increased HCC risk
Adami et al., J Natl Cancer Inst 1996; 88 : 1472-7Hospital-based cohort: 153,852 patients with DM. Follow-up: from 1 to 24 yearsHospital discharge diagnosisNoneDM was associated with increased risk of incident HCC
La Vecchia et al., Int J Cancer 1997; 73 : 204-7Case-control study: 428 HCC cases, 59 with gallbladder and bile duct cancers, and 1,502 control subjects from hospitalSelf-reportedAge, sex, area of residence, education level, alcohol intake, BMI, smoking, history of chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis, family history of liver cancerDM was associated with increased risk of incident HCC