RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEPATOCELLULAR-CARCINOMA AND SUBTYPES OF HEPATITIS-C VIRUS - A NATIONWIDE ANALYSIS

Although hepatitis C virus (HCV) has now been classified into several subtypes, the clinical significance of HCV subtypes is not well known. Typing of HCV is now routinely performed in Japan. In the present stu dy, HCV subtypes in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients were analy sed from nationwide data collected in Japan using a standard questionn aire. Answers to the questionnaire concerning HCV subtypes in patients with chronic hepatitis (CH), liver cirrhosis (LC) and HCC were obtain ed from 14 hospitals. The prevalence of the 1b-related subtype, which includes the mixed subtype of 1b and 2a or 2b, in patients with LC and HCC in each hospital was higher than in patients with CH, with few ex ceptions. However, the differences were not statistically significant because of the small number of patients in each hospital. In summarize d data from all 14 hospitals, the 1b-related subtype was found in 1370 of 1922 patients with CH (71.2%). In 356 LC and 426 HCC patients, the prevalence of the 1b-related subtype was 79.8 and 80.5%, respectively . The prevalence of the 1b-related subtype in patients with LC and HCC was significantly higher than in patients with CH. There was no signi ficant difference between the prevalence of the 1b-related subtype in patients with HCC and LC. These results indicate that the oncogenic ac tivity of subtype 1b, although nor yet clearly characterized, may be s tronger than subtypes 2a and 2b.