Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) genotypes distribution among hepatocellular carcinoma patients in Southern Italy: a three year retrospective study

Abstract

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the major cause for cancer in the world. Aim of this casecontrol study was to investigate the distribution pattern of HCV genotypes among HCC patients and suggest whether infection with specific subtypes may be associated with an increased risk of progression to cancer. Methods: 152 HCC anti-HCV positive patients, fulfilling the criteria from the Barcelona 2000 EASL conference, and 568 patients HCV chronically infected but without HCC as control group were included in the study. Serum of each patient was evaluated for viral load estimation and genotyping. Results: Males with HCC significantly showed to have quite 2 times higher risk of exposure to HCV infection (OR = 1.72; 95% CI = 1.15-2.58). Moreover, HCC was significantly associated with older age. In fact, > 50 years older patients showed to have a higher risk of developing HCC (OR = 17.4; 95% CI = 4.24 to 71.36) compared to younger patients. HCV RNA rate was significantly higher (83.7%) among HCC patients than in the control group (61.4%, p < 0.001) and the most prevalent genotype was 1b (68.0% in HCC vs 54.4% in the control group, p < 0.005). HCC patients significantly have a risk of exposure to HCV 1b infection almost 2 times greater than the control group (OR = 1.8; 95% CI = 1.11-2.82). The multivariate-adjusted OR (95% CI) of developing HCC for HCV 1b comparing to non-1b was 1.65 (1.16-2.33). Conclusions: Our study detected a significantly higher rate of HCV RNA positivity and a higher rate of HCV 1b infection in HCC patients, suggesting the strict association between subtype 1b infection and HCC. A prospective study with larger number of samples would be needed to confirm our results.

Prevalence of Hepatitis C virus genotypes in nine selected European countries: A systematic review

“…The distribution of HCV genotypes in Greece shows that almost the half of the studied cases are related to G1 (46.0%; 95% CI, 42-50), followed by G3 (31.0%; 95% CI, 28-34), G4 (13.0%; 95% CI, [11][12][13][14][15], and G2 (9.0%; 95% CI, 7-11).…”

“…3,5 Its high mortality rate seems to be essentially due to the fact that persistent HCV infection is often associated with the development of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). [6][7][8][9][10][11] Seven HCV genotypes have been up to now identified, each comprising multiple subtypes (1a, 1b, and so on) differing from each other by 31%-33% over the whole viral genome. [12][13][14][15] This high genetic diversity poses an obstacle not only for vaccine development but also for an effective antiviral therapy since its duration and response rate may be greatly influenced by the different isolated viral strains.…”

“…It has been estimated that over 71 million people have chronic hepatitis C infection mainly among populations of WHO Eastern Mediterranean and European Regions . Its high mortality rate seems to be essentially due to the fact that persistent HCV infection is often associated with the development of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) …”

Epidemiology and viral risk factors for hepatocellular carcinoma in the Eastern Mediterranean countries

“…HCV genotype 1 is the most frequent genotype followed by genotype 3 (17.9%), genotype 4 (16.8%), genotype 2 (11%), genotype 5 (2%) and genotype 6 (1.4%) [45] . The genotypes reported to be associated with high risk of HCC are genotype 1b and genotype 3 [46][47][48] .…”

Hepatitis C virus genotypes in hemodialysis patients in Angola

“…Data on regional variation of the GT distribution may also be relevant for the future development of an effective vaccine . In addition, there are data to suggest that HCV GT might be one of the factors influencing the risk of steatosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma among infected subjects …”