Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Apr 18, 2015; 7(5): 777-786
Published online Apr 18, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i5.777
Hepatitis D and hepatocellular carcinoma
Zaigham Abbas, Minaam Abbas, Sarim Abbas, Lubna Shazi
Zaigham Abbas, Department of Hepatogastroenterology, Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, Karachi 74200, Pakistan
Minaam Abbas, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1TB, United Kingdom
Sarim Abbas, Lubna Shazi, LiverStomach Clinic, Akber Centre, Karachi 75500, Pakistan
Author contributions: Abbas Z designed the review’s objectives; Abbas Z and Abbas M searched the literature for the latest developments in the field related to epidemiology and cell pathways; Abbas S designed the figure; Shazi L summarized the studies for the table; all authors were involved in reviewing the literature, writing and editing the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest: Authors do not have any conflict of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Zaigham Abbas, FCPS, FRCP, Department of Hepatogastroenterology, Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, Chand Bibi Road, Karachi 74200, Pakistan. drzabbas@gmail.com
Telephone: +92-21-32728998 Fax: +92-21-32728998
Received: August 19, 2014
Peer-review started: August 19, 2014
First decision: September 16, 2014
Revised: December 21, 2014
Accepted: January 15, 2015
Article in press: January 19, 2015
Published online: April 18, 2015
Processing time: 243 Days and 15.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Role of hepatitis D virus (HDV) in the oncogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been thoroughly investigated. Many epidemiological studies favour the increased risk of HCC with HDV superinfection. Oxidative stress as a result of severe necroinflammation may trigger the development of HCC. Epigenetic mechanisms like DNA methylation and histone modification may also be operating.