.:Center for Hepatitis Research: .

Liver Cancer, Hepatitis C Connection Gets Clearer

Forbes Magazine (Internet/Print) Dec. 07, 2005

Scientists have long noted a link between chronic hepatitis C infection and an increased risk for liver cancer, and a new study may help explain why. "What we've found is that one of the hepatitis C virus proteins (NS5B) targets a cell protein (retinoblastoma) that is crucial for suppressing the development of tumors, interfering with its ability to control cell proliferation," senior author Dr. Stanley M. Lemon, of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, said in a prepared statement. "By knocking out this 'tumor suppressor' and promoting the proliferation of liver cells, this rival protein is setting up the liver for cancer," Lemon explained. The study appears this week in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.