Abstract

This study was undertaken to investigate the relationship of primary liver carcinoma and clonorchiasis in Busan area, one of the areas most heavily infested with Clonorchis sinensis in the southern part of Korea. A series of consecutive 368 cases of primary liver carcinoma which were subjected to pathological evaluation in our department of pathology during the years from 1963 to 1974. The cases were mostly derived from Busan National University Hospital and Busan Gospel Hospital. The diagnosis was established by gross observation at operation table and morphological examination of the biopsied livers. The cases were analyzed statistically from an epidemiological view of point and obtained following results : 1. The relative risk of Clonorchis sinensis infestation in cholangiocarcinoma compared to hepatocarcinoma is about 5. The prevalence rate of clonorchaisis sinensis is much higher in cholangiocarcinoma than in cases without primary liver carcinoma, but it is not so with hepatocarcinomas. 2. The average age of the cases with cholangiocarcinoma and with hepatocarcinoma is 52 and 47, correspondingly, the difference being 5 years. No such marked difference between the average ages of both types of primary liver carcinomas is found in the reports by foreign authors. The average age of the cases with primary liver carcinomas is not associated with Clonorchis infestation and sex, but with its histological type. The average age of primary liver carcinoma is 48 and is much younger than those of Japanese and American white cases. 3. The ratio of primary liver carcinoma of male to female is 3.7, almost equal to those in Japanese and American white. 4. The frequency ratio of the hepatocarcinomas to the cholangiocarcinomas in cases with clonor. Chiasis was 1.5 and that in cases without clonorchiasis 8.4. On the basis of the above it seems to be of importance to consider clonorchiasis sinensis in epidemiological studies of liver cancer in Korea where this parasitic disease prevails widely.