Abstract 822: A retrospective study on the disparities of hepatocellular carcinoma
Authors: Zhou Xinchun , Aldridge Barrett , Rahmanov Nazar , Liu Zhirong , Mao Jinghe , Varshney Neha 
Published: March 2024

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of primary liver cancer in adults and the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Studies report that the incidence of, and mortality from HCC vary significantly by age, sex, and race/ethnicity; however, disparities in the expression level of tumor biomarkers, liver functions, lipid profiles, and comorbidities have not been thoroughly investigated among subpopulations of patient with HCC.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted to review 247 serial HCC cases enrolled in the University of Mississippi Medical Center during June 2000 to May 2023. The entire HCC population was stratified into subpopulations by race, gender, age and BMI. Then comparisons were performed between two corresponding subpopulations in the expression level of HCC-related biomarkers including Alpha-FP, liver functions including albumin, ALT, AST, and ALP, plasma lipid profiles including cholesterol, and comorbidity conditions including cirrhosis in benign liver tissues, smoking, alcohol using, and illness with viral hepatitis. Two-tailed Student’s T-test was used to calculate the difference in mean values, and Chi-Square Test was used to compare the difference in rates or percentages. The significant p value was set at p&lt;0.05.

Results: In total 247 HCC cases, males were 178 (72.1%) and females were 69 (27.9%) with a male to female ratio of 2.6:1; black patients were 108 (43.7%), white patients were 127 (51.4%), and others were 4.9%. The mean age was 59.6 years and mean BMI was 27.04. AFP was the only one of detected tumor biomarkers showing disparities: it was significantly higher in patients of male (p=0.026), younger age (p&lt;0.0001), lower BMI (p=0.039), smokers (p=0.0325) and illness with viral hepatitis (p=0.0007). Disparities in liver functions included: 1) AST was significantly higher in Black HCC patients (p=0.027); 2) no statistical difference of liver functions in gender; 3) younger HCC patients had significantly lower level of Albumin (p=0.006), and higher levels of ALT (p=0.014) and AST (p=0.0032); 4) HCC patients with lower BMI also had lower level of Albumin (p=0.015), and higher levels of AST (p=0.0480 and ALP (p=0.0057). There was no statistical difference of plasma lipid profiles between subpopulations, Black HCC patients except that Black HCC patients had significantly higher levels of cholesterol (p=0.0006) and HDL (p=0.048). In comorbidity, Black HCC patients had higher rates of alcohol using and existence of cirrhosis; and male HCC patients had higher rates of smoking, alcohol usage and viral hepatitis.

Conclusions: HCC patients are greatly disparate in the expression level of tumor biomarkers, liver functions, plasma lipid profiles and comorbidity conditions between subpopulations stratified by race, gender, age and BMI. These results could provide useful information for clinical management and prognosis of patients with HCC.

Citation Format: Xinchun Zhou, Barrett Aldridge, Nazar Rahmanov, Zhirong Liu, Jinghe Mao, Neha Varshney. A retrospective study on the disparities of hepatocellular carcinoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 822.