Abstract
In the U.S., Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) incidence rates have increased. We aimed to determine whether environmental exposure plays a role in the high incidence of HCC observed in New York City. We conducted a hospital-based case only study to examine the prevalence of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1)- and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-albumin adducts and the distribution of adducts by different characteristics of HCC patients. Blood samples were collected from 155 HCC patients for biomarker analyses. We observed that about 46% and 49% of cases had detectable AFB1- and PAH-albumin adducts, respectively. There were significant differences between AFB1-albumin adducts and selected factors such as HCV infection status (p = 0.04), diabetes (p = 0.03) and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage (p = 0.02). Cases with detectable PAH-albumin adducts had a smoking history compared with those with nondetectable levels (p = 0.04). The level of AFB1-albumin adducts was positively correlated with plasma bilirubin (r(s) = 0.32, p < 0.0001) and adiponectin concentrations (r(s) = 0.28, p = 0.0005). The level of aflatoxin B1-albumin adducts was negatively associated with blood albumin concentration (r(s) = - 0.28, p = 0.0009) and plasma DNA LINE-1 methylation (r(s) = - 0.16, p = 0.04). Our study provides additional evidence that environmental exposures including to aflatoxin might drive the high incidence of HCC observed in the New York City.