Prevalence of hepatocarcinoma-related hepatitis B virus mutants in patients in grey zone of treatment

Table 1 Demographic and clinical features of patients

Demographic data	Value
Male/female	16/15
Caucasian/sub-Saharan/chinese1	22/8/1
Age (years: mean ± SD)	45.1 ± 10.2
Virological data
HBV-DNA positivity (persistent/fluctuant)2	28/3
HBV-DNA titters (IU/mL: Mean ± SD)3	1.4 × 103 ± 3.5 × 104
Clinical data4
Persistently normal/marginally altered AST or ALT	18/13
Persistently normal/marginally altered AST	25/6
Persistently normal/marginally altered ALT	20/11
AST (IU/L: mean ± SD)	25.6 ± 9.5
ALT (IU/L: mean ± SD)	28.5 ± 14.3
Fibrosis stage (Fibroscan)
F0-F1	22
F2	6
Not available	3

¹Origin country of sub-Saharan patients: 3 Equatorial Guinea, 2 Senegal, 1 Ivory Coast, 1 Ghana, and 1 Cameroon;

²Persistent/fluctuant: Positive results in more/less than the 90% of samples;

³In 16 samples from 8 patients, point flares of HBV-DNA titters (> 20000 IU/mL) were observed;

⁴Persistently normal/marginally altered: Normal values in more/less than the 90% of the samples. IU: International units; AST: Aspartate aminotransferase; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; SD: Standard deviation.

Table 2 Assignment of risk of hepatocellular carcinoma development associated to each hepatitis B virus genetic variants

HCC risk	HBV region	Genetic variant
High
	PreS2	PreS2 deletions
	BCP	C1653T, T1753V (A/C/G), A1762T + G1764A
	Precore	G1896A, G1899A
Suspect
	PreS1	PreS1 deletions
	PreS2	T53C
	BCP	C1773T
	Precore	A1846T
	Core	C1914G, C2289A
Minor
	PreS1	T3098C, T3139A
	PreS2	PreS2 start codon
	S	T766A, T791A
	BCP	T1674C, G1727, C1741, C1761, C1766T, T1768A
	Precore	C1858T, G1862T
	Core	C1909, A1934T, C2002T, T2003A, C2100A, A2159G, A2189C, A2246C

High evidences: HBV mutants with positive data for HCC correlation evidenced in at least 3 different papers, or in meta-analysis studies; Suspected correlation: Positive data for HCC correlation evidenced in at least 2 works or without meta-analysis evidences; Minor evidences: Positive data for HCC correlation in single works. HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma.