Novel approach to identifying the hepatitis B virus pre-S deletions associated with hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 3 Analysis of pre-S deletions in hepatocellular carcinoma and non- hepatocellular carcinoma patients by capillary gel electrophoresis n (%)

Characteristics	HCCn = 157	Non-HCCn = 160	P value	OR (95%CI)
Age range, yr
≤ 48	78 (49.7)	88 (55.0)	0.343
> 48	79 (50.3)	72 (45.0)		/
Gender
Male	136 (86.6)	133 (83.1)	0.385	/
Female	21 (13.4)	27 (16.9)		/
Mutation pattern
Pre-S deletion alone	22 (14.0)	11 (6.9)	0.037	2.207 (1.032-4.722)
Wild type + deletion	52 (33.1)	34 (21.2)	0.017	1.835 (1.109-3.038)
Total deletions	74 (47.1)	45 (28.1)	< 0.001	2.278 (1.430-3.630)

HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma.