Hepatitis C Virus-Related Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Predictive Markers Using Proteomic Analysis (Methodology)

It was reported by El-Serag and Mason (1999) that hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common fatal cancers world-wide. From the repots by Okuda (1992, 2000) and Seow et al. (2001), the most apparent risk factor for HCC is thought to be the chronic infection with hepatitis B or C virus (HBV or HCV). Although in the other Asian countries HCCs developed from HBV-infection, the characteristic of HCCs in Japan is that they develop from the liver tissues infected with HCV or of liver cirrhosis. From the reports by Yano et al. (2003) and Yatsuhashi (2004), 80% of the death cases of HCC patients have HCV-infection, and the number of HCV-carriers in Japan is 2 million. The number of patients with HCC is still on the increase, although diagnostic and therapeutic techniques have become remarkably advanced. It was reported by Yatsuhashi (2004) that the incidence of HCC is increasing in many developed countries in parallel to an increase in chronic HCV infection. Therefore, it is important to identify the predictive marker proteins by which we can predict the carcinogenesis of HCC in HCV-infected patients.