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Hepatitis B virus DNA in patients with hepatitis B‐related liver cirrhosis with or without hepatocellular carcinomas: a matched case‐control study
Author(s) -
XU Jing,
LIN Yong,
WANG Yi Ping,
CHEN Yue Xiang,
SHI Bin,
LU Jian,
XIE Wei Fen
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of digestive diseases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.684
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1751-2980
pISSN - 1751-2972
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-2980.2009.00376.x
Subject(s) - hepatocellular carcinoma , medicine , hepatitis b virus , cirrhosis , gastroenterology , viremia , hepatitis b , odds ratio , hepatitis c virus , orthohepadnavirus , hepadnaviridae , virus , virology
OBJECTIVE: The relationship between serum viremia and the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)‐related cirrhosis remains unclear. We aimed at calculating odds ratios ( OR ) for the presence of HCC over a range of HBV DNA levels in these patients. METHODS: Patients were identified retrospectively and 155 pairs of matched, treatment‐naive HBV‐related cirrhotic patients with and without HCC were recruited. Their serum HBV DNA levels were measured at HCC diagnosis, or at the equivalent age in non‐HCC patients, and correlations between the presence of HCC and different DNA levels were calculated using conditional logistic regression. RESULTS: The median HBV DNA level was significantly higher in HCC patients than in non‐HCC patients (5.15 vs 4.83 log 10 copies/mL, P = 0.024). The overall OR for HCC in patients with HBV DNA ≥ 3 log 10 copies/mL was 2.13, compared with patients with levels <3 log 10 copies/mL. Compared with patients with <3 log 10 copies/mL, the OR for HCC were 2.39 and 2.61 for patients with 4 to <5 and 5 to <6 log 10 copies/mL, respectively, while the OR for DNA levels of ≥6 log 10 copies/mL were not significantly different. CONCLUSION: In HBV‐related cirrhosis, a detectable serum HBV DNA was associated with the presence of HCC, but the likelihood of having HCC did not successively increase with increasing serum HBV DNA levels: patients with serum HBV DNA levels between 4 and <6 log 10 copies/mL were most likely to present with HCC.