Objective: The principal objective of this work was to evaluate the association between the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and various occupations.
Methods: This case-control study, conducted during 2000 to 2003 in four French hospitals, included 125 men younger than 75 years with incident HCC and 142 men as control subjects.
Results: An association with HCC was observed for machinery fitters and machine assemblers (odds ratio [OR] = 4.4 [1.0-19.0], eight exposed cases and three exposed controls). A higher percentage of cases than controls were metal machinists (OR = 2.2 [0.8-5.8], 14 exposed cases and 10 exposed controls), although the difference was not statistically significant. These associations were strongest for subjects with duration of employment greater than 20 years.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest an association between metal machining jobs and hepatocellular carcinoma, although we cannot rule out the possibility that it was observed by chance.