Patients with autoimmune hepatitis may require monitoring to watch for hepatocellular carcinoma, according to a recent meta-analysis, but statistics suggest that the risk of liver cancer is greater among patients with primary biliary cholangitis, hepatitis B cirrhosis, and hepatitis C cirrhosis. After reviewing 25 studies that included more than 6,500 patients, researchers found:

• Incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with autoimmune hepatitis was 3.06/1,000 patient-years.
• Incidence of the cancer in patients with cirrhosis at the time they were diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis, however, was 10.7/1,000 person-years.

The analysis also revealed that 92 of the 93 patients who had hepatocellular carcinoma already had evidence of cirrhosis before or at the time of liver diagnosis.