ArticlePloS one2013
Case report evidence of relationships between hepatocellular carcinoma and ochratoxicosis.
Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of adverse health effects associated with mycotoxin exposure.Environment international · 2026Pooled it
- Risk Classification of Food Incidents Using a Risk Evaluation Matrix for Use in Artificial Intelligence-Supported Risk Identification.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Review
- Mycotoxin Occurrence, Exposure and Health Implications in Infants and Young Children in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Review
- Risk assessment of ochratoxin A in food.EFSA journal. European Food Safety Authority · 2020Article
- Phytochemistry, Antioxidant, and Hepatoprotective Potential ofMedicines (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThe incidence of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is on the rise, but what is causing that trend has remained a mystery. Mycotoxins are almost entirely ignored health problems, and sometimes actually naively belittled in advanced medical care. Ochratoxin A (OTA) is one of the most abundant food contaminating mycotoxins worldwide that is carcinogenic, but no studies have evaluated its levels in HCC patients. Therefore, this study was designed to monitor the presence of OTA in the serum of HCC patients and to quantify the strength of the association between OTA and HCC.
methodsWe conducted a case control-based study on 61 participants. Thirty-nine were HCC cases identified between 2010 and 2012 and individually matched by age, sex, residence and date of recruitment to 22 healthy controls. Serum OTA and alpha-fetoprotein levels were measured by using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively.
resultsHPLC analysis of 61 serum samples indicated that the highest incidence of elevated OTA was found in the HCC group and was 5-fold higher than in the control group. The concentration of OTA in the HCC group ranged between 0.129 and 10.93 ng/mL with a mean value±SD of 1.1±0.3 ng/mL, while in the normal group it ranged between 0.005 and 0.50 ng/mL with a mean value±SD of 0.201±0.02 ng/mL. The odds ratio for HCC patients presenting OTA levels above the cut-off of 0.207 (calculated by the receiver operating characteristic curve) was 9.78 (95% confidence interval = 2.9095-32.9816, P = 0.0002) with respect to normal controls, suggesting that HCC is 9.8 times as frequent in the exposed group to OTA.
conclusionOur results reveal a strong association between the presence of OTA and HCC, which may offer a coherent explanation for much of the descriptive epidemiology of HCC and suggest new avenues for analytical research.
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