A recent study published in Liver International found that patients living with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) may face a higher risk of death compared to the general population regardless of whether or not cirrhosis is present at the time of diagnosis.
The study included a cohort of 1,163 Danish patients, of whom nearly 90% were women, with a median age at diagnosis of nearly 60 years. Researchers tracked patients with a confirmed PBC diagnosis over a 22-year period.
Among the participants, 188 patients (16.2%) had cirrhosis at the time of their initial diagnosis; this subgroup was slightly older, with a median age of almost 64 years.
The researchers found that all patients with PBC faced a higher risk of death compared to the general population. However, the risk of death differed significantly based on the liver’s condition at the time of diagnosis. Patients diagnosed with cirrhosis faced a 10-year cumulative risk of death of 46.9%, whereas those without cirrhosis had a much more favorable 10-year risk of 18.5%, compared to 14.3% in the general population.
This small difference in the non-cirrhotic group may not be due to PBC alone; researchers noted that these patients often had a higher overall disease burden, suggesting that other health conditions present at diagnosis likely contributed to the long-term outlook.
The study also separately tracked the 10-year risk of requiring a liver transplant. For patients diagnosed with cirrhosis, the risk of needing a transplant was 8.4%, while for those without cirrhosis, it was significantly lower at 4.0%.
The risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma, a type of liver cancer, remained relatively low among patients in the study. Over a 10-year period, the risk was 2.6% for those with cirrhosis; male patients appeared to face a higher risk regardless of their cirrhosis status. Although these findings are encouraging, the small number of cases observed means further research is needed to fully understand all potential risk factors beyond sex and the presence of cirrhosis.
“These findings strengthen our understanding of the clinical course of PBC, and they will likely be considered pertinent by patients with PBC and their caregivers,” the authors highlighted.
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