Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 May 6.
Published in final edited form as: Gastroenterology. 2012 May;142(6):1274–1278. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2012.01.045

Figure 2. Direct versus indirect mechanisms of carcinogenesis in the HCV-infected liver.

Figure 2

Competing scenarios depicting how liver cancer might arise within an infected cell as the direct result of viral protein expression (left), or in uninfected hepatocytes proliferating in response to the apoptotic death of infected cells (right). Direct vs. indirect mechanisms of carcinogenesis are not mutually exclusive and are subject to considerable overlap. The risk of cancer arising via either scenario is likely to be enhanced by the presence of cirrhosis, immune-mediated inflammation, and oxidative stress.