Investigatingthe Possible Association Between Gene Variant(s) and Progression of Hepatocellular Carcinoma”

Abstract

The domestic incidence of HCV was estimated to be 14.7%. Unresolved chronic HCV infection could lead to worsening circumstances such as fibrosis, cirrhosis and/or ultimately hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). It was reported that during the disease cycle some HCV infection do not necessarily evolve into liver cirrhosis. Owing to major variation in disease progression and prognosis among several HCV infected patients , the host genetic factors have been reported to be one of the key factors engaged in the outcome of the disease progression (Chanthra et al., 2016).

Although HCC is the first most common cancer in men and the second most common cancer in women in Egypt, it is considered to be the fifth most common tumor worldwide and the second most common cause of cancer related death (Fteah et al., 2019).

The discovery of new and reliable biomarkers that are effective and non-invasive is of crucial for early diagnosis and rapid intervention in liver diseases combined with HCV infection. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been identified to be associated with HCV related hepatic disorders (Abdel-Ghaffar et al., 2015).

The aim of this study was to correlate the relationship between presence of certain SNPs in specific genes and the development of HCV more deteriorating conditions as in HCC through SNPs profiling in healthy controls, HCV and HCV related HCC infected Egyptian patient. This could pave the way for discovering more reliable biomarker panel for early diagnosis and prognosis of HCV hepatic disease susceptibility.