Vaccination against childhood HBV prevent HCC in children, young adults

Vaccination against childhood HBV prevent HCC in children, young adults -

By Shreeya Nanda

Vaccination against hepatitis B (HBV) infection protects infants against the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) not only children but also young adults, a Taiwanese study finds.

researchers say that "reinforce our confidence" results in the ability of the universal childhood HBV vaccination program to prevent HCC in the long term.

using national cancer registries and Taiwan Panel hepatoma Taiwan, they identified 1509 people aged 6-26 years who were diagnosed with HCC between 1983 and 2011. Of these, 1343 were born before the launch of the vaccination program against HBV in Taiwan in July 1984, while 166 were born after.

HCC incidence was significantly lower in the vaccinated than the unvaccinated cohort with a rate of 10 ⁵ person-years of 0.23 against 0.92 ( p <0.001). And vaccination reduced the risk of HCC development by a significant 76% ( p <0.001).

The reduction of the vaccination associated with HCC incidence was observed in all age groups, with significant rate ratios ranging from 0.26 to individuals aged 6-9 years 0 42 for those in the 20-26 age group ( p <0.001 for all age groups).

the team also identified a birth cohort effect on HCC prevention. Specifically, compared with the July 1984-June 1986 birth cohort when only infants of mothers positive for hepatitis B surface antigen were immunized, the relative risk of developing HCC was significantly more than 41% low for people born between July 1986 and June 1992, all of whom received the HBV vaccine plasma ( p = 0.002)

Similarly, individuals in the birth cohort July 1992 -05 -. who all received the recombinant HBV vaccine - were a significant 73% and 54% less likely to develop HCC compared to the 1984-1986 and 1986-1992 cohorts, respectively ( p <0.001 for both comparisons).

and the same effect was seen in all age groups say Mei-Hwei Chang (National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei) and co-investigators, except in the subgroup of children 6- 9 years who were born between 1984 and 1986, probably because of the small number of cases of HCC.

They observe that the presence of a cohort effect of birth - "very likely due to improved vaccination strategies in different periods of immunization program against HBV" - soothes the fears raised by reports of HCC rate increase with age as HCC prevention effect is not as good in young adults aged 20-26 years in children and adolescents.

Therefore, "our long-term follow-up study provides new evidence that universal HBV vaccination in infants successfully prevented liver cancer in children and young adults," concludes the team in Gastroenterology .

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