Chronic hepatitis C virus infection and genitourinary cancers: A case-control study

Background: Chronic Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been associated with extrahepatic cancers. Few studies have reported associations between HCV and genitourinary cancers such as kidney and prostate cancers with inconsistent findings. We sought to study associations between HCV and the most common genitourinary cancers including kidney, prostate and urinary bladder. Material and methods: This case-control study included adult (≥18 years at diagnosis) cancer patients who were screened for HCV antibody (anti-HCV) at MD Anderson Cancer Center from June 2004 through January 2018. Cases had incident primary genitourinary cancers (cancers of the kidney, prostate, renal pelvis and ureter, or urinary bladder). Controls had smoking-associated cancers (esophagus, lung and pancreas). Multivariate logistic regression models were used. Results: Among 42,244 patients screened for anti-HCV, 1,493 cases (527 kidney, 691 prostate, 58 renal pelvis and ureter, and 217 urinary bladder cancer) and 1,187 controls (242 esophagus, 709 lung, and 236 pancreas cancer) were studied. In the univariate analysis, the prevalence of anti-HCV positivity did not differ significantly between the controls and the cases with cancers of the renal pelvis and ureter (8% v9%, P = .81), prostate (10% v8%, P = .34), or urinary bladder (8% v 6%, P = .18). In contrast, the prevalence of anti-HCV positivity was lower among the cases with kidney cancer than among the controls (4% v 8%, P< .001). However, in the multivariate analyses after adjustment for cofounders, no significant association between anti-HCV positivity and any genitourinary cancer we evaluated. Conclusion: Our results do not support an association between chronic HCV and common genitourinary cancers.