Hepatitis B and C Virus Infection and Cholangiocarcinoma: A Case-Control Study in Turkey

Hepatitis B and C virus (HBV and HCV) infection have been proposed as risk factors for cholangiocarcinoma, but the results are inconsistent through different reports. This study is to carry out a hospital-based case-control study to investigate the association between HBV and HCV infection and cholangiocarcinoma in Turkey. A total of 127 cases and 48 matched controls were included in the study. There were 89 cases with extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, 10 cases with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and 28 cases with gallbladder cancer. The patients and controls were questioned on smoking, alcohol drinking, history of cholecystolithiasis, choledocholithiasis and hepatolithiasis. Blood from all participants were tested for HBsAg, Anti-HBs, Anti-HBc IgG and Anti-HCV. The prevalence of smoking, alcohol drinking, cholecystolithiasis, choledocolithiasis, hepatolithiasis, anti-HCV, HBsAg and antiHBs/anti-HbcIgG did not differ significantly between the patients and controls (p>0.05). In the subgroup analysis there was no significantly more prevalent risk factor except smoking in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (p= 0.019). In conclusion, HBV or HCV infection were not found to be risk factors for development of CC in this study.