Association of PNPLA3 SNP With the Development of HBV-related Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background/Aim: Concomitant nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)/hepatic steatosis (HS) is suggested to increase the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in hepatitis virus B (HBV)-infected patients. Patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing 3 (PNPLA3) rs738409 gene single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) is well-known to be associated with the development of NAFLD/HS; however, it is still unclear whether this SNP is related to the development of HCC in HBV-infected patients. Patients and Methods: We investigated a total of 202 HBV-infected patients who received percutaneous liver biopsy, and simultaneously assessed biopsy-proven HS, insulin resistance, and the PNPLA3 SNP status. We further investigated the relationships of these factors with the development of HCC in HBV-infected patients. Results: Most of the enrolled cases (196/202: 97.0%) were non-cirrhotic patients. One hundred seventy-three patients (85.6%) received antiviral therapy. A Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the incidence of HCC development in patients with HS was higher than that in patients without HS (p