Hepatitis C virus and hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

It is shown that hepatitis C virus infection is strongly linked to the development of hepatocellular carcinoma in epidemiological study. In particular, more than 70 % of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma in Japan are positive for hepatitis C virus infection. In addition to blood transfusion, other routes such as familial, mother-to-child, and sexual transmissions are believed to be involved in spread of this virus. It is also shown that intravenous drug abusers have a high risk of the infection. Frequent mutation in putative virus envelope is often observed in virus carriers and this may be related to the persistent nature of this virus. Molecular mechanism of the development of hepatocellular carcinoma by hepatitis C virus infection remains to be clarified.