A genetic variant at KIF1B predicts clinical outcome of HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma in Chinese

Background: Recently, a genome-wide association study conducted in Chinese reported a single nucleotide polymorphism at KIF1B, rs17401966, associated with the susceptibility of hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma. In this study, we aim to investigate the effect of rs17401966 on the prognosis of hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma patients at intermediate or advanced stages. Methods: The SNP rs17401966 was genotyped using the TaqMan allelic discrimination assay in 414 intermediate or advanced hepatocellular carcinoma patients. Log-rank test and Cox proportional hazard models were used for survival analyses. Results: Previous studies have identified that the G allele of rs17401966 demonstrated protective effect for the susceptibility of hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma. Here we found that subjects carrying the G allele of rs17401966 was significantly associated with a better survival compared with those carrying the A allele (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.82, 95% confidence intervals = 0.68-0.99, P = 0.044 in an additive genetic model). Conclusion: The variant G allele of rs17401966 may be a favorable biomarker for the prognosis of intermediate or advanced hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma patients in this Chinese population. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.