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Working group report on hepatitis viruses
Author(s) -
Vainio H.,
Heseltine E.,
Møller H.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.2910550502
Subject(s) - international agency , medicine , epidemiology , hepatitis b , environmental health , hepatocellular carcinoma , hepatitis b virus , hepatitis a , hepatitis , etiology , viral hepatitis , disease , public health , cancer , liver cancer , virology , virus , pathology
Abstract Viruses play a major role in the etiology of a number of malignancies, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cervical cancer, which are common in many parts of the world. In 1991, an ad hoc advisory group was convened by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to consider whether viruses and other biological agents should be included in the IARC Programme for the preparation of Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans . The group agreed unanimously that the carcinogenic risks of biological agents should be evaluated by expert groups such as those that have been convened by IARC over the past 20 years to discuss chemicals, physical agents, industries and cultural habits. A list of biological agents to be evaluated was drawn up, and the priority of each was designated by consensus on the basis of considerations regarding both their importance to public health and the status of the available epidemiological and biological evidence. On 8‐15 June 1993, IARC convened a Working Group consisting of experts in epidemiology, experimental carcinogenicity, internal medicine, pathology, communicable diseases and molecular biology (see list of participants) to discuss 3 viruses given high priority by the ad hoc advisory group, i.e. , hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HBC) and hepatitis D virus (HDV, or the delta agent). These 3 viruses all cause a similar acute illness involving the liver, but they are very different in structure and biology. Their common feature is that the liver disease they cause may have a chronic course; they differ in that way from hepatitis A and hepatitis E viruses, for which no association with chronic liver infection has been recognized. Furthermore, no indication is available to suggest that hepatitis A virus leads to HCC or any other cancer, and no studies have been reported on hepatitis E virus. The considerations of the Working Group were thus limited to HBV, HCV and HDV.