Changes in the prevalence of hepatitis B and C infection in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma in the Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan.

The development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is very closely associated with chronic liver disease. In the present study, the prevalence of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection as a causative role in the development of HCC was analysed in 253 patients with HCC, who were admitted to our hospital during 1976-90. Among these patients, 68 (27%) were positive for HBsAg but negative for anti-HCV antibody (group I); in contrast, 147 (58%) were negative for HBsAg but positive for anti-HCV antibody (group II), 19 (7.5%) were both positive (group III), and 19 (7.5%) were both negative (group IV). To evaluate the serial changes in the prevalence of HBsAg and anti-HCV antibody, changes in the number of patients were compared between group I and group II. The number of group I patients reached a peak during 1982-84 and was thereafter followed by a decreasing trend, whereas the number of group II patients steadily increased and reached a plateau over 6 recent years. These results suggest that HCV infection recently seems to play a more important role in the development of HCC than chronic HBV infection, even in the Nagasaki Prefecture, where the HBV carrier rate is higher than elsewhere in Japan.