HEPATITIS-B AND HEPATITIS-C VIRUS-INFECTION AS RISK-FACTORS FOR LIVER-CIRRHOSIS AND CIRRHOTIC HEPATOCELLULAR-CARCINOMA - A CASE-CONTROL STUDY

To investigate whether hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus ( HCV) infection are risk factors for liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a case-control study of 102 cirrhotic HCC patients, 102 sex-matched and age-matched patients with liver cirrhosis, and 102 matched patients with non-hepatic disease controls was performed. The prevalences of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and antibody to HC V (anti-HCV) in HCC (70.5%, 39.2%) and liver cirrhosis (74.5%, 27.4%) were higher than controls (16.6%, 10.5%) (P = 0.0001). In HBsAg-negati ve patients, the prevalence of anti-HCV in cirrhotic HCC (66.6%) and l iver cirrhosis (46.1%) was higher than in controls (10.5%; P = 0.0001) . There was no such difference in HBsAg-positive patients. Multivariat e analysis revealed that both HBsAg and anti-HCV were important risk f actors for HCC (odds ratio, 6.52 and 4.59, respectively) and liver cir rhosis (odds ratio, 4.22 and 2.29, respectively). There was no differe nce in odds ratio when HCC and liver cirrhosis were compared. Our resu lt implies that both HBV and HCV are independent risk factors for cirr hotic HCC and liver cirrhosis in Taiwan.