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Incidence and trends of hepatic cancer among children and adolescents in the United States from 2000 to 2017: Evidence from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry data

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Abstract

Objective

Primary liver tumors are rare pediatric malignancies. Knowledge of the epidemiology of pediatric liver tumors is limited. This study aims to present the national incidence trends of pediatric liver tumors over 18 years, according to sociodemographic and histological subtype variation.

Methods

The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry was queried from 2000 to 2017 for 1,099 patients between ages 0 and 19 with liver tumors. Age-standardized incidence rates by age, sex, and race/ethnicity were examined among histological subtypes. Annual percentage change (APC) was calculated via joinpoint regression for various sociodemographic and histotype subgroups.

Results

An increase of age-adjusted incidence rate of pediatric hepatic cancers was observed between 2000 and 2017 (APC, 1.7% [95% confidence interval or CI: 0.6%–2.8%], p-value = 0.006), which may likely attribute to the increasing incidence of hepatoblastoma and mesenchymal tumors (APC, 2.5% [95% CI: 1.1%–3.8%], p-value = 0.001). The incidence trend of hepatocellular carcinoma remained stable in the study period. The non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander children and adolescents had a higher risk of hepatic tumors (incidence rate ratio or IRR, 1.42 [95% CI: 1.16–1.72], p-value = 0.0007) when compared with the non-Hispanic white subgroup, while a non-Hispanic black child was associated with a lower incidence rate (IRR, 0.64 [95% CI: 0.50–0.80], p-value < 0.0001). Significantly lower hepatic tumor incidence occurred in females than males, with an incidence rate ratio of 0.69 (95% CI: 0.61–0.78; p-value < 0.0001). Hepatic tumor incidence was also significantly lower in those aged 1–4 years (IRR, 0.47 [95% CI: 0.40–0.54]; p-value < 0.001) and 5–19 years (IRR, 0.09 [95% CI: 0.08–0.10]; p–value < 0.001) when compared with the youngest age group aged less than 1 year. These significant differences were also detected for the subgroup of hepatoblastoma and mesenchymal liver tumors but less among hepatocellular carcinomas (all p-values less than 0.0001).

Conclusion

Continued increasing incidence of pediatric hepatoblastoma and mesenchymal liver tumors was discovered and warranted further investigation. Additional findings include a lower incidence of hepatic cancer among non-Hispanic black individuals and higher incidence of hepatic cancer in non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander, male, and aged 1–4-year children and adolescents.

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Data availability

Data that were analyzed in this study are publicly available through the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program (www.seer.cancer.gov).

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Acknowledgments

None.

Funding

Dr. Peiyi Li’s research is in part supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 72207174). Dr. Yujia Kong’s research is in part supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 20003560), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (Grant No. ZR2020MH340), and Undergraduate Education Reform Research Project of Shandong Province (Grant No. M2021174).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Peiyi Li and Yujia Kong have contributed equally to this research article.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

    Peiyi Li

  2. Laboratory of Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine, National-Local Joint Engineering Research Centre of Translational Medicine of Anesthesiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

    Peiyi Li

  3. The Research Units of West China (2018RU012), Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

    Peiyi Li

  4. Department of Public Health, Weifang Medical University, Weifang, Shandong, China

    Yujia Kong

  5. Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Jing Guo

  6. Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine/Aflac Cancer & Blood Disorders Center, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Xu Ji

  7. Surveillance and Health Equity Science, American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Xuesong Han

  8. Department of Neurology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Bo Zhang

  9. Biostatistics and Research Design Center, Institutional Centers for Clinical and Translational Research, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Bo Zhang

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  1. Peiyi Li
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Appendix

Appendix

See Table 4.

Table 4 ICD-O-3 code used in this study for pediatric hepatic tumors
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Li, P., Kong, Y., Guo, J. et al. Incidence and trends of hepatic cancer among children and adolescents in the United States from 2000 to 2017: Evidence from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry data. Cancer Causes Control 34, 69–79 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-022-01640-4

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