Hepatitis C Virus Prevalence and Genotyping among Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients in Baghdad

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third most common cause for cancer death in the world, now beingespecially linked to chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. This case-control study consisting of 65 HCCpatients and 82 patients with other malignant tumours as controls was conducted to determine the associationof HCV markers with HCC. Serum of each participant was obtained for detection of HCV Ab and RNA byDNA enzyme immunoassay (DEIA). Twenty six per cent (26.0%) of HCC patients had positive anti-HCV whichwas significantly greater than the control group (p=0.001). HCC patients significantly have a risk of exposure toHCV infection almost 3 times than the control group (OR=2.87, 95% C.I=1.1-7). Anti-HCV seropositive rate wassignificantly (p=0.03) higher among old age HCC patients and increases with age. Males with HCC significantlyshowed to have more than 9 times risk of exposure to HCV infection (OR=9.375, 95 % CI=1.299-67.647) thanfemales. HCV-RNA seropositive rate was (70.8%) significantly higher among HCC patients compared to (22.2%)the control group (p=0.019). The most prevalent genotype (as a single or mixed pattern of infection) was HCV-1b. This study detected a significantly higher HCV seropositive rate of antibodies and RNA in HCC patients.