.:Center for Hepatitis Research: .

Link between hepatitis, liver cancer found

Galveston County Daily News (Internet/Print) Dec. 06, 2005

Scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch have identified a key biochemical connection between the hepatitis C virus and liver cancer. The molecular mechanism is similar to the one that links the human papilloma virus, the cause of genital warts, and cervical cancer, according to Stanley M. Lemon, senior author of a paper that will be published this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “What we’ve found is that one of the hepatitis C virus proteins targets a cell protein that is crucial for suppressing the development of tumors, interfering with its ability to control cell proliferation,” Lemon said. “By knocking out this ‘tumor suppressor’ and promoting the proliferation of liver cells, this viral protein is setting up the liver for cancer.”