Researchers at Seoul National University Hospital have found that obese hepatitis B patients have a higher risk of having liver cancer, the hospital said Thursday.

Professor Park Sang-min

The team, led by Professor Park Sang-min of the family medicine department at the hospital, analyzed 370,322 chronic hepatitis B patients using the big data from the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS). It then investigated the relationship between obesity and liver cancer by tracking them for nine years from 2007.

It found that patients with high-density obesity (body mass index 30 and higher) had a higher risk of having liver cancer than those with average body weight (BMI 18.5 to 22.9). Notably, women had a 46 percent risk of liver cancer depending on obesity, far wider a gap than men’s 25 percent difference regarding the possibility of cancer by obesity.

The research was the first of its kind that analyzed the correlation between BMI and liver cancer in patients with hepatitis B. “In the same degree of obesity, the risk of liver cancer seems to be different between men and women because the amount of fat is commonly higher in women,” Professor Park said. “Obese hepatitis B patients need a healthy weight management program.”

The research team stressed that the use of healthcare big data would make an essential contribution to determining the importance of weight in the management of patients with hepatitis B in the future.

The results of the research were published in the JAMA-Oncology.

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