Genetic alteration in hepatocellular carcinoma

Cancer of stomach, colon and liver are a group of the most common cancer in Korea. However, results with current therapeutic modalities are still unsatisfactory. The intensive efforts have been made to understand basic pathogenesis and to find better therapeutic tools for the treatment of this miserable disease. We studied the alteration of tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes in hepatocellular carcinoma in Korea. We found that alteration of Rb gene, APC were 33 %, 13 % respectively. But alterations of oncogenes such as myc, ras and mdm2 were rarely found. Our results suggests that HBV may act as oncogenic role in hepatocarcinogenesis instead of oncogenes. 6 figs, 2 tabs. (Author)