| [ Summary ] |
Recently, it has been reported that the presence of antibodies acting against HBV are an important risk factor associated with carcinogenesis in HBsAg-negative and HCV-related chronic liver disease. It is important to examine the relationship between HCV infections and HBV DNA integration simultaneously in HBsAg-negative and anti-HCV positive HCC patients. The aim of this study is to clarify the existence and form of HCV RNA and HBV DNA genome integration in liver tissue with HBsAg-negative(NB) HCC. We investigated 16 Japanese patients who were HBsAg-negative and anti-HCV-positive(C) HCC. Moreover, we analyzed the backgrounds of 34 NB and anti-HCV-negative(NC) patients with chronic liver disease(CLD), patients not associated with HCC and also 26 NBNC CLD patients with HCC. We also examined 6 with NBNC HCC. HBV genome integrationinto host the cell genome, detected by using PCR. The majority of HBsAg-negative and anti-HCV positive HCC liver tissue was found to have HCV-RNA and HBV DNA integration. Even in the HBsAg-negative and anti-HCV negative HCC cases, with CLD coexisting with LC, previous HBV infection and HBV DNA integration were observed. It is speculated that an important role for previous infections with HBV may also be proposed for HCC oncogentic progression in NBC and NBNC HCC. |