Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 27, 2026

Author Spotlight: Advancements and Challenges in Hepatitis B Virus Detection
Published on: December 15, 2023
Genetic variants in cell death pathway genes and HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma among a Chinese Han population
Fei Liu1, Fuqiang Li1,2, Limei Luo3
1Department of Liver Surgery & Liver Transplantation Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, 37 Guo Xue Road, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan, China.
Abstract:
Cell death pathway plays an important role in apoptosis, and corruption of this signaling pathway has been shown to participate in carcinogenesis. We aimed at determining whether genetic variants in CASP8, CASP10 and CFLAR influence the development and clinical outcomes of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A hospital-based case-control study, including 600 HCC cases and 600 HBsAg positive controls without HCC, was conducted to assess the relationship between 11 tagging SNPs in CASP8, CASP10 and CFLAR and HBV-related HCC risk and prognosis in a Chinese Han population. Among the 11 polymorphisms, only CASP8 rs3834129 (-652 6N ins/del) modified HCC risk. Compared with CASP8 -652 insins genotype, the deldel (adjusted OR 0.717, 95% CI 0.553-0.930) and insdel (adjusted OR 0.731, 95% CI 0.554-0.964) genotypes had a significantly decreased HCC risk. Furthermore, this polymorphism was significantly associated with decreased portal vein tumor thrombosis (adjusted OR 0.554; P = 0.044) and reduced postoperative recurrence (adjusted OR 0.356; P < 0.001) of resected HCC. In addition, the multivariate analysis showed that the -652 6N ins/del polymorphism was significantly associated with improved overall survival and recurrence-free survival of resected HCC patients. The expression levels of CASP8 in HCC tumor tissues were significantly lower than those in paracancerous liver tissues, although no significant association between -652 6N ins/del genotypes and the expression levels of CASP8 were observed in these tissues. These results suggest that the CASP8 -652 6N ins/del polymorphism may play a protective role in the development, progression, and survival of HBV-related HCC among the Chinese Han population.
Related Concept Videos
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms-SNPs
Histone Variants at the Centromere
Pharmacogenetic Phenotypes: Alterations in Pharmacokinetics, Drug Targets and Biologic Milieu
Cancer Prevention
Some...
Genome-wide Association Studies-GWAS
GWAS does not require the identification of the target gene involved in...
Comparing Copy Number Variations and SNPs
Copy number variations or CNVs are the structural variations that cover more than 1kb of DNA sequence. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), on the other hand, is a single nucleotide change or a point mutation that is found in more than 1%...

