Can chronic hepatitis C virus infection lead to esophageal cancer?

USA: In a new study conducted by Ben Ponvilawan and the team, it was found that there is a small link between chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) and the development of esophageal cancer. The findings of this study were published in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology.

Infection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is linked to an increased risk of hepatobiliary tract cancer. However, it is still unknown if persistent HCV infection is linked to an increased risk of other cancers. The goal of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to see if persistent HCV infection is linked to an increased risk of esophageal cancer.

From January to November 2019, a systematic review was conducted utilizing the Embase and MEDLINE databases, with a search strategy that included the terms "hepatitis C virus" and "cancer." Eligible studies included cohort studies that tracked patients with persistent HCV infection and non-infected controls for the development of esophageal cancer. Each eligible study's hazard risk ratio, incidence rate ratio, relative risk, or standardized incidence ratio, as well as their 95 percent confidence intervals, were retrieved and integrated to create the pooled impact estimate using the random effect, generic inverse variance technique.

The key findings of this work were as follow:

1. Using this search method, a total of 20,459 articles were found.

2. Seven studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the meta-analysis after two rounds of independent evaluation.

3. Chronic HCV infection was linked to an increased risk of esophageal cancer, with a pooled relative risk of 1.61.

4. The funnel plot was very symmetric, indicating that there was little evidence of publishing bias.

In conclusion, this comprehensive review and meta-analysis found a small link between chronic HCV and the development of esophageal cancer. However, more research is needed to determine the etiology and exact pathophysiology of this relationship.

Reference:

Ponvilawan B, Rittiphairoj T, Charoenngam N, Rujirachun P, Wattanachayakul P, Tornsatitkul S, Ungprasert P. Association Between Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection and Esophageal Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. J Clin Gastroenterol. 2022 Jan 1;56(1):55-63. doi:10.1097/MCG.0000000000001532. PMID: 33780211.