title: Hepatitis virus B is not a risk factor in hepatoblastoma patients.
abstract: The prevalence of primary liver cancer varies throughout the world. Hepatoblastoma is the most common pediatric liver malignancy, comprising approximately 1% of all pediatric cancers. The exact etiology of hepatoblastoma remains undetermined. Concerning hepatitis B infection, whether there are links with hepatoblastoma is poorly documented. Here, we summarize knowledge on the prevalence of hepatitis B seropositives among the patients with hepatoblastoma. According to the literature review, six reports were recruited for metanalysis, with a total of 60 cases. The overall prevalence of seropositive cancer was 3.3 % (2/560). Further analysis revealed no correlation between prevalence rate and nationality of the studied population (P > 0.05). Therefore, hepatitis B infection does not appear to be a contributing factor for hepatoblastoma. Further studies are needed to clarify which are the risk factors for the hepatoblastoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. wviroj@pioneer.netserv.chula.ac.th
authors.forename: Viroj
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Wiwanitkit
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D018197:Hepatoblastoma / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D015995:Prevalence; D013785:Thailand / Q000453:epidemiology