[News] Biomarker to Identify Hep B-Infected Patients at Risk for Liver Canc

StephenW

Newswise — CHICAGO— Hepatitis B-infected patients with significantly longer telomeres—the caps on the end of chromosomes that protect our genetic data— were found to have an increased risk of getting liver cancer compared to those with shorter ones, according to findings presented by researchers at Jefferson’s Kimmel Cancer Center at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2012.
The relative telomere length in hepatitis B-infected cases with liver cancer was about 50 percent longer than the telomere length of the cancer-free hepatitis B-infected controls.
A strong correlation between telomere length and non-cirrhotic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a liver cancer commonly caused from hepatitis B and C viral infections, could help physicians better stratify the hepatitis B population in an effort to better prevent and treat the disease.
Previous reports have suggested telomere length plays a role in cancer prediction; however, there have been conflicting results and the majority of the studies measured telomere length in liver cells (hepatocytes) and white blood cells.
Here, Hushan Yang, Ph.D., of the Division of Population Science at the Department of Medical Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson’s Kimmel Cancer Center, and colleagues used circulating cell-free serum DNA from an existing and ongoing clinical cohort at the Liver Disease Prevention Center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.   
Tapping into a cohort of almost 2,600 Korean Americans, a population disproportionately infected with hepatitis B, the team analyzed blood samples from over 400 hepatitis B-infected patients to compare relative telomere length using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).
This nested case-control study included 140 hepatitis B-HCC cases and 280 cancer-free hepatitis B controls. Demographic and clinical data were obtained for each patient through medical chart review and consulting with treating physicians.
All participants were restricted to Korean hepatitis B patients to control the confounding effects of ethnicity and HCC etiology. The large majority of the patients were infected at birth or childhood, making this population an ideal resource to study the long-term outcome of hepatitis B infection at the population level.
The hepatitis B-HCC cases were found to have a relative telomere length about 50 percent longer than the cancer-free controls (0.31 versus 0.20, P=0.003), a statistically significant difference.
The difference, however, was also only evident in males and in non-cirrhotic patients, and not cirrhotic patients, possibly because that the effect conferred by telomere length was overshadowed by the strong association between cirrhosis and HCC. There were also no statistical differences between cohorts with respect to age and smoking status.
“This is the first study to demonstrate that relative telomere length in circulating cell-free serum DNA could potentially be used as a simple, inexpensive and non- invasive biomarker for HCC risk,” said Dr. Yang. “This sets the stage for further retrospective and prospective investigations, in-depth molecular characterizations, and other assessments to determine the clinical value of serum DNA telomere length in risk prediction and early detection of HCC.”
Co-authors of the study were Shaogui Wan, Xiaoying Fu, Ronald Myers, Ph.D., Division of Population Science, Department of Medical Oncology, Thomas Jefferson University; Hie-Won Hann, M.D., Richard Hann, Jennifer Au, M.D., Division of Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University; and Jinliang Xing, Department of Cell Biology, Fourth Military Medical University in China.
This study was supported by two grants from the National Cancer Institute, a Tobacco Grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, an American Cancer Society grant, and a Research Scholar Award from the V Foundation for Cancer Research.
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Thomas Jefferson University (TJU), the largest freestanding academic medical center in Philadelphia, is nationally renowned for medical and health sciences education and innovative research.   Founded in 1824, TJU includes Jefferson Medical College (JMC), one of the largest private medical schools in the country and ranked among the nation’s best medical schools by U.S. News & World Report, and the Jefferson Schools of Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions, Population Health and the College of Graduate Studies.  Jefferson University Physicians is TJU’s multi-specialty physician practice consisting of the full-time faculty of JMC.  Thomas Jefferson University partners with its clinical affiliate, Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals.

StephenW

newswise  - 芝加哥的B型肝炎病毒感染的患者显着较长的端粒对染色体，保护年底帽的基因数据，发现有一个相比较短的增加罹患肝癌的风险，根据提交的调查结果研究人员在杰斐逊Kimmel癌症中心在美国癌症研究学会（AACR）2012年度会议协会。

在B型肝炎病毒感染与肝癌病例的相对端粒长度是50％左右，比癌症乙肝感染控制端粒长度更长。

很强的相关性之间的端粒长度和非肝硬化肝细胞癌（HCC），肝癌通常由乙型和丙型肝炎病毒感染引起的，可以帮助医生更好地分层为了更好地预防和治疗疾病的B型肝炎人口。

端粒长度起着预测癌的作用，以前的报告中建议，但已经出现了相互矛盾的结果和大多数研究肝细胞（肝细胞）和白血细胞的端粒长度测量。

在这里，杨虎山，博士，托马斯·杰弗逊大学杰弗逊的Kimmel癌症中心的肿瘤医学部部人口科学，和他的同事用从现有的和正在进行的临床队列循环细胞无血清DNA托马斯·杰斐逊大学医院肝病防治中心。

球队攻到近2600韩裔美国人，人口不成比例感染乙肝队列，从超过400名B型肝炎感染的病人比较相对的端粒长度，采用实时定量聚合酶链反应（QRT-PCR）分析血液样本。

这巢式病例对照研究包括140 B型肝炎，肝癌和280例癌症乙肝控制。人口学和临床数据，获得每个病人通过主治医生的病历审查和咨询。

所有参加者仅限于韩国乙肝患者控制的种族和肝癌病因的影响因子。大部分患者在出生时或儿童感染，使这个人口研究乙型肝炎病毒感染的长期结果在人口层面的理想资源。

B型肝炎，肝癌案件中发现有一个相对端粒长度延长约50％，比癌症控制（0.31与0.20，P = 0.003），差异有统计学意义。

的差异，但是，也只有明显的男性和非肝硬化患者，肝硬化患者，可能是因为端粒长度所赋予的作用，肝硬化和肝癌之间的强关联黯然失色。也有一些年龄和吸烟状况同伙之间没有统计学差异。

“洋博士说：”这是首次有研究表明，循环细胞无血清DNA可能被使用简单，价格低廉和非侵入性的生物标志物作为肝癌的风险相对端粒长度。 “这将进一步回顾性和前瞻性调查阶段，深入的分子特征，与其他评估，以确定肝癌的风险预测和早期检测血清DNA端粒长度的临床应用价值。”

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