This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Lee, C.-L. Articles by Ko, Y.-C. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Lee, C.-L. Articles by Ko, Y.-C.

Trends in the Incidence of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Boys and Girls in Taiwan after Large-Scale Hepatitis B Vaccination

Department of Pediatrics, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital and Institute of Biomedical Sciences, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung [C-L. L.]; Department of Pediatrics, Kaohsiung, Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung [K-S. H.]; and Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung [Y-C. K.], Taiwan

In July 1984, large-scale hepatitis B vaccination of newborns began in Taiwan. Vaccination decreased the overall incidence of childhood hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We conducted this study to learn whether the vaccination program had the same effect on boys and girls. We collected liver carcinoma (including HCC and hepatoblastoma) deaths from 1974 to 1999 from the Taiwan Mortality Registry and the 1974–1999 population data from the Taiwan Ministry of Interior to calculate the liver carcinoma mortality rate. The populations ages 0–14 and ages 15–100 in each calendar year were treated as the study group and the reference group, respectively. We divided the 1974–1999 calendar years into 4-year strata and calculated the mortality rates of each 4-year period. We used the 1980–1983 mortality rate as the standard to calculate 4-year-interval mortality rate ratios. Vaccination effects by age and gender were estimated dividing the study and the reference groups into male and female subgroups. We used a double-comparison method to confirm the effects of hepatitis B vaccination: the mortality rate trend of the study group (ages 0–14) compared with the reference group (ages 15–100) in the same period (1984–1999), and the mortality rate trend of the study group (age 0–14) compared with itself in the pre- and postvaccination periods (1974–1983, 1984–1999). Liver carcinoma mortality decreased significantly among both males and females after 1984. In the study group, the male mortality rate decreased by up to 70%, and the female mortality rate decreased by up to 62% in the 1996–1999 interval compared with the 1980–1983 period. Both the male and the female study groups’ mortality rate trends decreased from 1983 to 1999 compared with the 1974–1983 period or compared with the same period of the reference groups. Our results indicate hepatitis B vaccination decreases childhood HCC in both boys and girls.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. W. Shepard, E. P. Simard, L. Finelli, A. E. Fiore, and B. P. Bell Hepatitis B Virus Infection: Epidemiology and Vaccination Epidemiol. Rev., August 1, 2006; 28(1): 112 - 125. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. J. Goedert Preventing Infection-Associated Cancer: From Bench to Hillside J Natl Cancer Inst, February 16, 2005; 97(4): 245 - 246. [Full Text] [PDF]

				Session 3: Cancer Prevention: Prevention of Liver Cancer THOMAS W. KENSLER, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland 21205 Toxicol Pathol, January 1, 2004; 32(1): 139 - 140. [PDF]