Abstract
The cause of early oncogenesis in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related childhood hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unclear. This study investigated whether pre-S deletion of HBV is related to childhood HCC. By using nested polymerase chain reaction, we compared the pre-S sequence of HBV from sera of children with HCC against control children with similar chronic HBV infection. The HBV in sera of children with HCC had a significantly higher rate of pre-S deletion than that of children with chronic HBV infection (p = 0.008). All except one of the pre-S deletions from the HCC group involved the pre-S2 region, whereas no pre-S2 deletion was found in the chronic HBV group (p = 0.003). There was a trend whereby genotype-C sera had a higher rate of pre-S2 deletion than genotype-B sera (p = 0.11). A multivariate logistic regression model revealed that pre-S deletion was an independent risk factor for HCC in children (odds ratio: 36.69, p = 0.015). In conclusion, pre-S2 deletion does not need to take decades to occur; its presence in nearly half of children with HCC, in contrast to its absence in children with chronic HBV infection, suggests a link between pre-S2 deletion and HCC development in children.
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Abbreviations
- HBeAg:
-
hepatitis B virus e antigen
- HbsAg:
-
hepatitis B virus surface antigen
- HBV:
-
hepatitis B virus
- HCC:
-
hepatocellular carcinoma
- PHSA:
-
polymerized human serum albumin
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Harry Wilson for suggestions and proofreading, and Dr. Mu-Zon Wu and Dr. Yung-Ming Jeng for pathology consultation.
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Support by National Science Council (NSC-96-2628-B002-017-MY3) and the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI-EX97-9418BI) of Taiwan.
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Huang, HP., Hsu, HY., Chen, CL. et al. Pre-S2 Deletions of Hepatitis B Virus and Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Children. Pediatr Res 67, 90–94 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1203/PDR.0b013e3181c1b0b7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/PDR.0b013e3181c1b0b7
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