Arsenic, vinyl chloride, viral hepatitis, and hepatic angiosarcoma: A hospital-based study and review of literature in Taiwan

BMC Gastroenterology

Research Article

Shue-Ren Wann¹  Hong-Tai Chang¹  Neng-Chyan Huang²  How-Ran Guo³  Jyh-Seng Wang⁴  Shoa-Lin Lin⁵ 

[1] Department of Emergency Medicine, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, 386 Ta-Chung 1st Road, 81362, Kaohsiung, Taiwan;National Yang-Ming University, School of Medicine, 155 Linong Street Section.2, 112, Taipei, Taiwan;Department of Emergency Medicine, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, 386 Ta-Chung 1st Road, 81362, Kaohsiung, Taiwan;National Yang-Ming University, School of Medicine, 155 Linong Street Section.2, 112, Taipei, Taiwan;Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, 138 Sheng-Li Road, 70428, Tainan, Taiwan;Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, 138 Sheng-Li Road, 70428, Tainan, Taiwan;Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, 138 Sheng-Li Road, 70428, Tainan, Taiwan;Sustainable Environment Research Center, National Cheng Kung University, 500 An-Ming Road Section 3, 70955, Tainan, Taiwan;National Yang-Ming University, School of Medicine, 155 Linong Street Section.2, 112, Taipei, Taiwan;Department of Pathology, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, 386 Ta-Chung 1st Road, 81362, Kaohsiung, Taiwan;National Yang-Ming University, School of Medicine, 155 Linong Street Section.2, 112, Taipei, Taiwan;Intensive Care Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, 386 Ta-Chung 1st Road, 81362, Kaohsiung, Taiwan;

关键词: hepatic angiosracoma;    vinyl chloride;    arsenic;    viral hepatitis;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-230X-11-142

 received in 2011-05-24, accepted in 2011-12-26,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundHepatic angiosarcoma (HAS) is a rare type of liver cancer that is often fatal, and arsenic and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) are two major causal agents. Whereas Taiwan is an endemic area of liver cancer, epidemiologic data on HAS are limited. We reviewed the cases observed at a teaching hospital to evaluate the roles of VCM, arsenic, and viral hepatitis in the occurrence of HAS.MethodsWe reviewed the medical records of patients with pathological proof of HAS from January 2000 to August 2010 at a teaching hospital which is adjacent to the major VCM processing area in Taiwan and nearby an endemic area of arsenic exposure from drinking water. We also conducted a literature review and included all patients of HAS reported in Taiwan.ResultsSix male and three female cases aged from 56 to 83 years (64.6 ± 8.2 years) were identified at the hospital. The differences in clinical features between men and women were not statistically significant. None of them had exposure to VCM or arsenic in drinking water. Two had evidence of hepatitis C infection, but none had evidence of hepatitis B infection. Five male and four female cases aged 30 to 82 years (58.6 ± 15.5 years) were identified in the literature, including two with arsenic exposure and one with chronic hepatitis B infection.ConclusionsHAS is rare in Taiwan, and we found no evidence supporting a major role of VCM, arsenic in drinking water, or viral hepatitis in its occurrence.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Huang et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.