Abstract
Fifty‐eight patients with chronic hepatitis C were followed for more than 7 years. Of them, 10 patients were found to develop hepatocellular carcinoma, 14 to develop liver cirrhosis, 30 to sustain chronic hepatitis, and 4 to show subsidence of hepatitis. Antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti‐HCV) disappeared from the 4 patients whose hepatitis subsided, but it persisted in the remaining 54 patients. The mean titer of anti‐HCV was almost the same at the stages of chronic hepatitis and of cancer in the 10 patients who developed hepatocellular carcinoma. These results indicate that chronic infection of hepatitis C virus may lead to hepatocellular carcinoma.
Keywords: Hepatitis C virus (HCV), Anti‐HCV, Hepatocellular carcinoma, Chronic hepatitis
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