DOES HCV INCREASE THE LIKELIHOOD OF CANCER?
Chronic infection by HCV is associated with an increased risk of liver cancer. The prevailing concept is that hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) occurs against a background of inflammation and regeneration associated with chronic hepatitis over the course of approximately 3 or more decades. Most cases of HCV-related HCC occur in the presence of cirrhosis. The risk for a person with chronic HCV hepatitis developing HCC appears to be 1-5 percent after 20 years, with striking variations in rates in different geographic areas of the world. Once cirrhosis is established, the rate of development of HCC is 1-4 percent per year. – National Institutes of Health Consensus Statement on Hepatitis C 1997 Chronic infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is regarded as a risk factor for hepatocellular cancer, mostly in patients with liver cirrhosis. We looked for HCV genomes in the livers of patients with hepatocellular cancer who did not have cirrhosis to see whether HCV was directly oncogenic. Cancerous
