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DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1733609
Variants APOE (rs429358) and TM6SF2 (rs187429064) confer risk to hepatocellular carcinoma
Background and aims The host genetic background for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is incompletelyunderstood. We aimed to determine if four germline genetic polymorphisms, rs429358in APOE, rs2642438 in MARC1, rs2792751 in GPAM and rs187429064 in TM6SF2, previously associated with progressive alcohol-related and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are also associated with HCC.
Patients and methods Four HCC case-control datasets were constructed, including two mixed etiology datasets (UK Biobank and FinnGen); one HCV cohort (STOPHCV) and one alcohol related HCC cohort (Dresden HCC). Cases with HCC were compared against cirrhosis controls (i.e. cirrhosis patients without HCC) and/or population controls. Adjusted odds ratios (OR) reflecting variant frequency in cases versus controls were calculated using multivariate logistic regression under an additive genetic model. Fixed-effect meta-analysis was used to determine the average effect size across all datasets.
Results Across four case-control datasets, 2070 HCC cases, 4958 cirrhosis controls, and 525779 population controls were included. The rs429358:C allele in APOE wassignificantly less frequent in HCC cases versus controls (per allele OR across allstudies: 0.68; 95%CI: 0.58-0.79; P =9.30×10-7). Rs187429064:G in TM6SF2 wassignificantly more common in HCC cases versus controls and exhibited the strongesteffect size (OR: 2.61;95%CI:1.97-3.39; P =1.4×10-11). In contrast, rs2792751:T inGPAM was not associated with HCC (OR:0.99; 95%CI:0.90-1.08; P =0.85), whilstrs2642438:A in MARC1 was less frequent in cases versus controls, but narrowlymissed statistical significance (OR: 0.89; 95%CI:0.80-0.98; P =0.02).
Conclusion This study associates carriage of rs429358:C (APOE) with a reduced risk of HCC, whereas carriage of rs187429064:G in TM6SF2 is associated with an increased HCC risk. No association with HCC was found for GPAM and MARC1 variants.
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Publication History
Article published online:
07 September 2021
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