Carcinogenesis, Vol 18, 445-449, Copyright © 1997 by Oxford University Press
S Okada, H Ishii, H Nose, T Okusaka, A Kyogoku, M Yoshimori and K Wakabayashi
The measurement of somatic cell mutation may assist in the assessment of
human cancer risk. The glycophorin A (GPA) assay, which measures the
frequency of variant erythrocytes in persons with blood type MN, was used
to directly assess in vivo mutability in 30 patients with hepatocellular
carcinoma (HCC). HCC patients showed significantly increased frequencies of
both hemizygous (MO) and homozygous (MM) variants, due to somatic loss of
expression of the N allele, when compared with 27 patients with chronic
liver disease and 21 healthy controls. The mean elevations of the MO and MM
variant frequencies (VF) in HCC patients were 2-3-fold greater than the
comparable VF in the control groups. The mean MO and MM VF in the patients
with chronic liver disease was slightly elevated compared to that in
healthy controls, but the difference was not significant. In the 19 anti-
hepatitis C virus (HCV)-positive patients with a history of blood
transfusion, significant linear relations between VF and the duration of
HCV infection were observed for MO and MM. These data indicate a high
background frequency of somatic mutations in HCC patients. The GPA assay
may prove to be a useful estimation of the individual's risk of development
of HCC.
ARTICLES
Evidence for increased somatic cell mutations in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
Department of Internal Medicine, National Cancer Centre Hospital, Chuo- ku, Tokyo, Japan.
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