据国外媒体4月12日报道，美国亨利福特医院发现，感染丙型肝炎会使人患肾癌的风险增加。
医生们对亨利福特健康体系有关6.7万多名患者的管理数据进行分析，发现从1997年到2008年，有0.6%的丙型肝炎患者发展成肾癌，与之相比，非丙型肝炎患者只有0.3%的人发展成肾癌。排除年龄、性别、种族和潜在的肾病后，感染丙型肝炎几乎使人发展成肾癌的风险增加了一倍。
亨利福特医院肝病专科主任，这篇论文的第一作者斯图亚特戈登说：“这些结果显示，丙型肝炎病毒引起的疾病已经超越了肝脏的范围，事实上感染丙型肝炎病毒的大部分肾癌患者，其肝脏受损的程度非常非常小。”该研究成果发表在4月的美国癌症研究学会《癌流行病学：生物标记与预防》（Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers " Prevention）杂志上。
研究人员还发现，丙型肝炎病毒阳性患者患癌症的平均年龄，明显比没得丙肝的人患肾癌的年龄更小。通常年龄更大的人易患肾癌。戈登解释说，丙型肝炎的治愈率超过50%，目前的首要问题是开发出更新、更好的治疗方法。亨利福特医院目前正在担任此类研究的部分临床试验工作。
推荐原文出处：
Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers " Prevention April 2010 19; 1066 doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-09-1275
Risk for Renal Cell Carcinoma in Chronic Hepatitis C Infection
Stuart C. Gordon1,4, Dilip Moonka1, Kimberly A. Brown1, Craig Rogers2, Mary Ann Y. Huang1, Neal Bhatt4 and Lois Lamerato3
Authors' Affiliations:1Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and Departments of 2Urology and 3Biostatistics and Research Epidemiology, Henry Ford Hospital; and 4Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan
Background: Chronic infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) confers increased risk for chronic renal disease, and numerous reports suggest an association with renal cell carcinoma (RCC), a cancer with rapidly rising global incidence. We sought to determine whether HCV infection confers an increased risk for developing RCC.
Methods: With the use of administrative data from a large, integrated, and ethnically diverse healthcare system, we did a cohort study of 67,063 HCV-tested patients between 1997 and 2006 who were followed for the development of RCC until April 2008.
Results: A search of the health system cancer registry for patients with the diagnosis of kidney cancer showed that RCC was diagnosed in 0.6% (17 of 3,057) of HCV-positive patients versus 0.3% (177 of 64,006) of HCV-negative patients. The mean age at RCC diagnosis was much younger in HCV-positive individuals (54 versus 63; P & 0.001). The univariate hazard ratio for RCC among HCV patients was 2.20 (95% confidence interval, 1.32-3.67; P = 0.0025). In a multivariate model that included the risk factors age, African-American race, male gender, and chronic kidney disease, the overall hazard ratio for RCC among HCV patients was 1.77 (95% confidence interval, 1.05-2.98; P = 0.0313).
Conclusion: Chronic HCV infection confers a risk for the development of RCC.
