Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Western countries. Metastatic liver disease more frequently develops metachronous metastasis following treatment of CRC. It was reported that hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection finally reduces the risk of intrahepatic metastasis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with a higher survival rate and therefore can be considered an important prognostic factor for HCC patients. Rare reports are available on the relation between HBV infection and hepatic metastasis of CRC.

A research article to be published on February 14, 2011 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The authors designed a cohort study to observe the relation between HBV infection and liver metastasis of CRC.

The results showed a decrease in the percentage of metastases in the Hepatitis B virus infected group (14.2%) with respect to the control group (28.2%). In contrast, the number of patients that developed extrahepatic metastases was significantly higher than the control group, without any significant difference in the overall survival rate. Finally, the authors suggested that HBV infection in colorectal cancer patients could be used as a prognostic factor in terms of hepatic metastasis formation.

Reference -Qiu HB, Zhang LY, Zeng ZL, Wang ZQ, Luo HY, Keshari RP, Zhou ZW, Xu RH. HBV infection decreases risk of liver metastasis in patients with colorectal cancer - A cohort study. World J Gastroenterol 2011; 17(6): 804-808

Correspondence to- Rui-Hua Xu, MD, PhD, Professor of Medical Oncology, Vice President, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou 510060, Guangdong Province, China. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Telephone - +86-20-87343468 Fax -  +86-20-87343228

About World Journal of Gastroenterology

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2009 IF- 2.092. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.

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Ye-Ru Wang
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World Journal of Gastroenterology