Hepatitis B link to cancer is clarified.It's well established that hepatitis B Hepatitis B Definition Hepatitis B is a potentially serious form of liver inflammation due to infection by the hepatitis B virus (HBV). It occurs in both rapidly developing (acute) and long-lasting (chronic) forms, and is one of the most common chronic virus can cause liver cancer Liver Cancer Definition Liver cancer is a relatively rare form of cancer but has a high mortality rate. Liver cancers can be classified into two types. . Scientists in Taiwan now report that a certain kind of hepatitis B is much more likely than others to lead to cancer and that large amounts of any type of the virus correlate with high cancer risk. The researchers obtained blood samples from 4,841 men diagnosed with hepatitis B but not yet treated for the condition. Over the next 14 years, 154 of the patients developed liver cancer. The researchers then compared blood from these men with that from 316 similar men in the study who hadn't developed cancer. The comparison indicated that the men with cancer were five times as likely to have a kind of hepatitis B called genotype genotype (jēn`ətīp'): see genetics. genotype Genetic makeup of an organism. The genotype determines the hereditary potentials and limitations of an individual. C. There are seven genotypes of hepatitis B, which are forms of the virus whose DNA DNA: see nucleic acid. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid One of two types of nucleic acid (the other is RNA); a complex organic compound found in all living cells and many viruses. It is the chemical substance of genes. differ from each other, explains study coauthor co·au·thor or co-au·thor n. A collaborating or joint author. tr.v. co·au·thored, co·au·thor·ing, co·au·thors To be a collaborating or joint author of: "He and a colleague . . . Ming-Whei Yu, an epidemiologist at National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (Traditional Chinese: 國立臺灣大學; Simplified Chinese: 国立台湾大学 in Taipei. The blood samples revealed that high amounts of any hepatitis genotype increase the risk of liver cancer. In particular, men whose blood carried a high load of genotype C of hepatitis B virus faced a 27-fold higher risk of developing cancer, compared with men with a low load of one of the virus' other genotypes, Yu and her colleagues report in the Feb. 16 Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Screening hepatitis B patients for their virus genotype could reveal people at especially high risk of cancer, Yu says. Some medications can suppress the virus. |
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