Risk for liver cancer rises with each generation among US residents of Mexican descent
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Second- and third-generation individuals of Mexican descent who reside in the U.S. had a higher risk for developing hepatocellular carcinoma than first-generation U.S. Mexicans, according to study results.
The findings, scheduled for presentation during American Association for Cancer Research Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved, also showed the later-generation individuals of Mexican descent had a higher likelihood of being current smokers, consuming more alcohol and coffee, and having an elevated BMI.
Background
“There are increasing trends of HCC among Hispanic/Latino men and women in the United States, whereas many other cancer sites indicate decreasing trends, which prompted us to wonder what may be contributing to this,” Nicholas Acuna, MPH, a PhD student in epidemiology in the population and public health sciences department at Keck School of Medicine of USC, told Healio. “A previous study using the Multiethnic Cohort [MEC] found that U.S.-born Latinos had an increased risk for liver cancer compared with those who were born outside of the U.S. We wanted to expand this concept of nativity and look at generations in the U.S. among individuals of Mexican descent — the largest Latin American subgroup in the MEC study.”
Acuna and colleagues analyzed 32,239 self-identified U.S. Mexican individuals in the MEC study who resided in Los Angeles and Hawaii and had information on parental birthplace. The researchers grouped individuals as first generation if born in Mexico with both parents born in Mexico, second generation if U.S.-born with at least one parent born in Mexico, and third generation if U.S.-born with both parents born in the U.S. They assessed HCC risk using multivariable Cox models that adjusted for age, sex, BMI, smoking status, alcohol intake, history of diabetes and daily coffee consumption.
Median follow-up was 23.4 years.
Findings
Results showed 220 incident cases of HCC.
Compared with first-generation individuals, second-generation individuals had a 35% increased risk for HCC and third-generation individuals had a 61% increased risk (P for trend = .009).
Researchers also identified an increase in age-adjusted HCC incidence rates with each successive generation, from 20.9 per 100,000 for first-generation individuals to 27.5 per 100,000 for second-generation individuals and 34.7 per 100,000 for third-generation individuals.
Researchers did not observe significant heterogeneity by diabetes status but did find that third-generation U.S. Mexican individuals without diabetes had an 82% increased risk for HCC compared with first-generation individuals without diabetes. Moreover, they observed no heterogeneity according to BMI status or alcohol intake and noted similarities in distributions of tumor grade or stage at diagnosis across generations among those with HCC.
Study limitations included the fact that it did not account for different HCC etiologies and focused solely on individuals of Mexican descent.
Implications
Researchers hope the findings aid in intervention strategies that focus on second- and third-generation individuals to promote healthier lifestyle behaviors, Acuna said.
“We are working on merging our sample with neighborhood-level information, such as ethnic enclave, neighborhood socioeconomic status and alcohol outlet density, to see if the distribution of these variables differs across generations,” he said. “These neighborhood-level factors may potentially explain why we are seeing an increased risk with increasing generation status.”
References :
- Acuna N, et al. The role of generation on hepatocellular carcinoma risk among US Mexicans in Los Angeles. Presented at: American Association for Cancer Research Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; Sept. 16-19, 2022; Philadelphia.
- U.S. residents of Mexican descent may have a higher risk of liver cancer with each successive generation (press release). Published Sept. 16, 2022. Accessed Sept. 16, 2022.
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Acuna N, et al. The role of generation on hepatocellular carcinoma risk among US Mexicans in Los Angeles. Presented at: American Association for Cancer Research Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; Sept. 16-19, 2022; Philadelphia.
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