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World J Gastroenterol. Sep 7, 2019; 25(33): 4885-4891
Published online Sep 7, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i33.4885
Occupational exposure to vinyl chloride and liver diseases
Ugo Fedeli, Paolo Girardi, Giuseppe Mastrangelo
Ugo Fedeli, Paolo Girardi, Epidemiological Department, Azienda Zero, Padova 35131, Italy
Giuseppe Mastrangelo, Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Sciences, University of Padova, Padova 35128, Italy
Author contributions: Fedeli U, Girardi P, Mastrangelo G reviewed the literature and wrote the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the Authors have no conflict of interest related to the manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ugo Fedeli, MD, Senior Scientist, Epidemiological Department, Azienda Zero, Veneto Region, Passaggio Gaudenzio 1, Padova 35131, Italy. ugo.fedeli@azero.veneto.it
Telephone: +39-49-8778542 Fax: +39-49-8778235
Received: March 26, 2019
Peer-review started: March 26, 2019
First decision: May 30, 2019
Revised: June 10, 2019
Accepted: June 25, 2019
Article in press: June 26, 2019
Published online: September 7, 2019
Processing time: 165 Days and 12.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Occupational exposure to vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) causes chronic liver disease, liver angiosarcoma, and hepatocellular carcinoma. VCM exposure has a synergistic effect with other known risk factors of liver diseases such as alcohol consumption and chronic viral infection. Further research is warranted to assess the risk of liver cancer at low levels of exposure and to investigate the patterns of risk with time since exposure.