[Synergism of three risk factors in hepatocellular carcinogenicity]

To evaluate potential synergistic effects of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the development of human primary hepatocellular carcinoma (PHC), AFB1, HBV-DNA and HCV-RNA in liver tissue sampled from the patients with PHC were detected by high performance liquid chromatography, nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and reverse transcription nested PCR. Positive rates of AFB1, HBV-DNA and HCV-RNA were 67.7% (21/31), 88.2% (60/68) and 13.2% (9/68), respectively. Eighteen of the 31 patients were positive for both AFB1 and HBV-DNA, and six of the 68 patients positive for both HBV-DNA and HCV-RNA. Furthermore, AFB1, HBV-DNA and HCV-RNA all were detected in four cases, while all negative in controls. It suggests that all the three factors are directly associated with human hepatic carcinoma, and play a synergistic role on hepatic carcinogenicity.