Hepatitis B virus pre-S deletion mutations are a risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma: a matched nested case-control study

1 Department of Medicine, UCL Medical School, London W1T 4JF, UK 2 Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Jin Zhou Road, Nanning, Guangxi 530028, PR China 3 Research Department of Infection and Population Health, Division of Population Health, UCL Medical School, University College London, London NW3 2PF, UK 4 Sanitary and Antiepidemic Station of Long An, ChengXi Road, Cheng Xiang Town, Long An, Guangxi 532700, PR China Correspondence Tim J. Harrison t.harrison{at}ucl.ac.uk A matched nested case–control study of 33 paired cases and controls was conducted, based on a study cohort in Long An county, Guangxi, China, to determine whether infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) with pre-S deletions is independently associated with the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), without the confounding effects of basal core promoter (BCP) double mutations. The prevalence of pre-S deletions was significantly higher in HCC (45.5 %, 15 of 33) than the controls (18.2 %, 6 of 33) ( P