Lack of association between interleukin 28B rs12979860 gene polymorphism and hepatocellular carcinoma development in chronic hepatitis C

Discovery of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) may enable patients at risk to adapt their lifestyle and legitimate implementation by their doctors of surveillance programs facilitating early diagnosis and subsequent disease management. This study aimed to investigate whether interleukin-28B (IL-28B) rs12979860 SNP affect the development of HCC in chronic hepatitis C (CHC) infection. IL-28B rs12979860 was genotyped in 80 CHC patients (30 with liver cirrhosis and 50 with HCC). T allele carriers (CT and TT combined) were slightly more frequent in HCC patients (39/50, 78%), without any significant difference (P=0.437), compared with patients with liver cirrhosis (21/30, 70%). ROC curve analysis showed that there is no good reliable predictive power for IL-28B T allele to predict the HCC development (AUC=0.540). When comparing patients with CC genotype with T allele carriers, biochemical data did not show any significant differences (P>0.05). Also, Spearman correlation analysis revealed that there was no association between IL-28B SNP and any of biochemical parameters. Moreover, there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in IL-28B rs12979860 genotypes distribution between patients with low and those with high AFP levels and between patients with single and those with multiple tumors. In conclusion, we did not find any significant association between IL-28B rs12979860 SNP and the development of HCC in Egyptian patients with chronic hepatitis C infection.