Association Between Prediabetes and Risk, Mortality of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Meta-Analysis

ABSTRACT

Background

As the high-risk stage of diabetes, the role of prediabetes in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. To address this knowledge gap, we undertook a meta-analysis to investigate the potential association between the prediabetic stage and HCC.

Methods

In this study, two independent investigators conducted a comprehensive search for relevant articles published up until May 2023 in several databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Medline, EMBASE, and Google Scholar. The results were then summarized using STATA 12.0 software.

Results

Our analysis included a total of 6 cohort studies involving 1,490,752 participants, as well as 1 case–control study with 220 participants. The research aimed to examine the association between prediabetes and the risk of HCC. Our meta-analysis revealed that prediabetes was significantly associated with an elevated risk of HCC (odds ratio (OR)/relative risk (RR) = 1.25, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.06 to 1.48, I² = 57.2%, p = 0.012), using a random-effects model. Moreover, four cohort studies, encompassing 1,362,847 participants, explored the relationship between prediabetes and HCC mortality. The meta-analysis showed that prediabetes was associated with a higher mortality rate of HCC, also utilizing a random-effects model (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.36, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.81, I² = 55.8%, p = 0.060).

Conclusions

Overall, our findings highlight a significant association between prediabetes and an increased risk of HCC and suggest that prediabetes may also contribute to higher mortality rates among HCC patients.

KEYWORDS:

• Hepatocellular carcinoma
• meta-analysis
• prediabetes

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/07435800.2024.2361160

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.