High prevalence of hepatitis B and C viral markers in Japanese patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

In order to assess the etiologic role of hepatitis C virus (HCV) as well as hepatitis B virus (HBV) in the etiology of HCC, we compared the prevalence of HCV-related antibodies (anti-C100-3, anti-CP9, anti-CP10) and HBV-related markers (HBsAg, anti-HBs, anti-HBc) in sera of patients with liver cirrhosis (LC) with (n = 62) and without (n = 54) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In HBsAg-negative cases, at least one HCV-related marker (including HCV RNA) was detected in 92.3% (48/52) of HCC cases and in all of the 44 LC cases without HCC, with no significant difference between these two groups. In HBsAg-positive cases, the prevalence of either one of these HCV-related markers was 40.0% (4/10) both in patients with and without HCC, and there was no significant difference between these two groups. Moreover, in HBsAg-negative cases and 11 cases of positive HCV-related markers, the prevalence of anti-HBs and/or anti-HBc was significantly higher in LC patients with HCC (85.4%) than those without HCC (43.2%, P < 0.001). These results show a high prevalence of hepatitis B and C viral markers in Japanese patients with HCC and further indicate that previous HBV infection is a risk factor in the occurrence of HCC in HBsAg-negative LC and LC with positive HCV-related markers.