Journal of Liver Cancer

Jong Sam Hong

1 Article

Epidemiologic Changes in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A 10-year Single Center Experience in Gangneung, Korea: Young Don Kim, Woo Sung Jang, Jang Hoon Kwon, Jong Sam Hong, Gab Jin Cheon; Journal of the Korean Liver Cancer Study Group. 2013;13(2):123-129. Published online September 30, 2013; DOI: https://doi.org/10.17998/jlc.13.2.123

Abstract PDF: Background/Aim
s: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is common cause of liver related death in Korea, and the importance of alcohol as an etiology of chronic liver disease including cirrhosis is emphasized recently. We investigated the epidemiologic changes of HCC during last 10 years in single tertiary center in Gangneung, Korea.
Methods
We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of admitted patients diagnosed as HCC in year 2002 and 2012 respectively, and their clinical characteristics were compared.
Results
A total of 214 patients were enrolled. Mean age was 60.1 years and 179 (83.6%) was male. Number of patient with cirrhosis was 160 (74.8%) and with viral hepatitis was 164 (74.8%). Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) was the most common cause of HCC patients with liver cirrhosis (61.9%), and alcohol was 14.4%. The possible curative group (by BCLC stage 0 or A) was only 36.4% (n=78), and had not decreased during the study periods (36.3 % vs. 36.6%, P=0.144), and other clinical variables also had no statistical differences.
Conclusions
The clinical characteristics of HCC including clinical stage at the time of diagnosis were not changed over the last 10 year period, and CHB was still the most common etiology of HCC in Gangneung, Korea.