[Type C hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma]

Recently the number of hepatitis C virus antibody (HCV-Ab) positive male cases with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is increasing only in Japan mainly for two reasons. One is that cases with liver cirrhosis are surviving longer than before. The other is the increasing number of HCC cases receiving blood transfusions at operations approximately 30 years ago. The prognosis of NS' 4 positive cases was worse than NS' 4 negative cases with HCV-Ab positive chronic hepatitis. The rate of HCV-Ab and HBsAg positive cases among 113 ones with HCC was about 70 percent and 25 percent, respectively. Some 239 cases with cirrhosis were followed for 6 years. Consequently HCV-Ab positive HCC cases were found to have a yearly incidence rate of 7 percent. The rate of development to HCC with HCV-Ab and HBsAg positive cases was significantly higher than that of both HCV-Ab and HBsAg negative ones. The integration of HCV-RNA was not found both in cancerous and non-cancerous region, different from the very high integration rate of HBsAg positive cases. Pathoepidemiologically, HCV is closely related to HCC. However, the role of HCV in the development of HCC remains unknown.