title: Opposite association between diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hepatocellular carcinoma mortality in the middle-aged and elderly.
abstract: Limited data exist regarding metabolic risk factors for deaths from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in aging individuals. We investigated the association between diabetes, dyslipidemia, and HCC mortality in those aged 40 years or more (middle-aged and elderly). In this prospective cohort study based on nationwide health screening units, we consecutively followed middle-aged and elderly participants who had no chronic hepatitis B or C virus infection and received health screening from January 1 1998 to December 31 2008. There were 235 deaths from HCC among 50,080 individuals, ascertained by validated death certificates and the national death registry. Diabetes (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 3.38; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.35 to 4.86) was positively associated with deaths from HCC. However, hypertriglyceridemia (HR, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.26 to 0.55) and hypercholesterolemia (HR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.37 to 0.67) were inversely associated with HCC mortality. The above significant associations remained in the lag time analyses, applied to check for reverse causation. Metabolic syndrome, as defined by the American Heart Association / National Heart Lung Blood Institute criteria (HR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.46 to 0.86) or by the International Diabetes Federation criteria (HR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.43 to 0.89), was inversely associated with deaths from HCC, especially in men.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Middle-aged and elderly individuals, once having diabetes, deserve HCC surveillance to reduce HCC mortality. More research is needed to elucidate why having baseline dyslipidemia relates to lower future HCC mortality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Community and Family Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital Yun-Lin Branch, Yunlin, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chien-Hsieh
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.forename: Long-Teng
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Shou-Hung
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Hung
authors.forename: Wen-Yuan
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Hui-Fang
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Hung
authors.forename: Wei-Shiung
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Pei-Kun
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Sung
authors.forename: Kuo-Chin
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D048909:Diabetes Complications / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D050171:Dyslipidemias / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology