Previous hepatitis B viral infection–an underestimated cause of pancreatic cancer

Table 1 List of specific sets of primers and probes used for the analysis

Target	Sequence
cссDNA	Fw	CCGTGTGCACTTCGCTTCA
	Rev	GCACAGCTTGGAGGCTTGA
	Probe	FAM-CATGGAGACCACCGTGAACGCCC-BHQ1
β-globin	-	V31-FEP-CE (АmpliSens)
		HPV HCR-Screen (AmpliSens)

cccDNA: Covalently closed circular DNA; Fw: Forward; Rev: Reverse; HPV: Human papillomavirus; HCR: High carcinogenic risk; AmpliSens: AmpliSens Biotechnologies, Russia.

Table 2 Study population characteristics

	PDAC, n = 60	Control, n = 70
Age in yr, Me (25%-75%)	64 (59-69)	62 (58-65)
Race/Ethnicity
White/Caucasian, n (%)	56 (93.3)	65 (92.9)
Asian, n (%)	4 (6.7)	5 (7.1)
Females, n (%)	33 (55.0)	45 (64.3)
Anti-HBc (total), n (%)	18 (30.0)a	9 (12.9)
Anti-HBc + anti-HBs, n (%)	8 (13.3)	5 (7.1)
Anti-HBc (only), n (%)	10 (16.7)	4 (5.7)
HBV DNA (blood and/or pancreatic tissue), n (%1)	8 (44.4)a	0
HBV DNA (pancreatic tissue only), n (%1)	6 (33.3)a	0

^aP < 0.05 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma vs control (Yates corrected χ²).

¹The percentage is according to the number of anti-hepatitis B core antigen-positive cases.

PDAC: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma; Me: Median; HBV: Hepatitis B virus; HBc: Hepatitis B core antigen; HBs: Hepatitis B surface antigen.

Table 3 The results of special examination of subjects with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

No.	Sex	Age in yr	Blood samples				Pancreatic tissue
			HBsAg	Anti-HBc	Anti-HBs	HBV DNA, IU/mL	HBV DNA, IU/mL	pgRNA HBV, IU/mL	cccDNA, copies/cell × 10-6	HBxAg	HBx-positive cells1, %
1	M	50	Neg	Pos	Neg	Tnd	653	Tnd	257	Pos	3.9
2	F	58	Neg	Pos	Pos	Tnd	415	797	1440	Np	Np
3	M	60	Neg	Pos	Pos	Tnd	1183	Tnd	Tnd	Pos	3.7
4	M	61	Neg	Pos	Pos	Tnd	364	520	314	Pos	3.4
5	F	63	Neg	Pos	Pos	Tnd	Tnd	Tnd	Tnd	Neg	0
6	F	66	Neg	Pos	Pos	134	868	Np	Np	Np	Np
7	M	69	Neg	Pos	Pos	Tnd	610	Tnd	Tnd	Np	Np
8	M	69	Neg	Pos	Pos	Tnd	302	1428	1384	Np	Np
9	F	70	Neg	Pos	Pos	126	834	Tnd	1026	Pos	9.9

¹Data are shown as median values by several fields of vision.

HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen; anti-HBc: Antibody to hepatitis B core antigen; anti-HBs: Antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen; pgRNA: Pregenomic RNA; cccDNA: Covalently closed circular DNA; HBxAg: Hepatitis B virus X antigen; Np: Not performed; Tnd: Target not detected; Neg: Negative; Pos: Positive; HBV: Hepatitis B virus; M: Male; F: Female.