Hepatitis G virus infection in Spanish patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Aims/Background: To establish the rate of infection with a newly discovered Flaviviridae family member - hepatitis G virus (HGV)- in Spanish patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), chronic alcoholic liver disease (CALD) with cirrhosis, or hepatitis C virus (HCV)-induced chronic hepatitis (CH). Methods. The presence of HGV-RNA was assessed in sera of 117 patients divided in three groups: group 1: 40 patients with HCC (35 men, mean age 62.7 years, SD 10.9 years); group 2: 41 patients with chronic alcoholic liver disease (CALD) (36 men, mean age 52.5 years, SD 9.8 years); group 3: 36 patients with HCV-induced CH (27 men, mean age 35.8 years, SD 8.5 years). Serum samples were tested for HGV-RNA by specific reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Serological markers of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and HCV were investigated in all patients and were negative in CALD patients, as a prerequisite for their inclusion in the study. All patients in group 1 were also tested for HBV-DNA. Results. Rates of HGV-RNA positivity were, respectively, 47%, 10% and 28% in groups 1, 2 and 3. Differences were significant between groups 1 and 2 (p=0.00017) and groups 2 and 3 (p=0.042), but not between groups 1 and 3 (p=0.079). Conclusions: HGV infection is common in HCC patients, but usually in association with HCV, indicating that both agents share common routes of infection. HGV was the only hepatitis virus detected in 12% of HCC patients, but its possible role in the pathogenesis of HCC remains unclear.