LAUSR

Background: Host immune response and chronic inflammation associated with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection play a key role in the progression of liver disease from cirrhosis to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We evaluated a large panel of circulating immunologic markers to better understand the natural history of HCV-related liver disease. Methods: We sampled 94 HCC, 68 cirrhotic and 100 non-cirrhotic controls from a Taiwanese prospective cohort study of chronically HCV-infected individuals. Multivariable polytomous logistic regression and canonical discriminant analysis (CDA) were used to compare baseline plasma levels for 102 markers in individuals who developed cirrhosis as compared to controls and those who developed HCC. P-values for individual markers were corrected for multiple testing using a false discovery rate of 10%; a p-value Results: After adjusting for age, sex, years of follow-up, serum alanine aminotransferase level, alcohol and smoking, DEFA-1 (p-trend: Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first prospective study to assess immunologic markers in relation to liver disease progression in individuals chronically infected with HCV. While further validation is required, these findings highlight the importance of immunologic processes in HCV-related disease. Citation Format: Ilona Argirion, Ruth M. Pfeiffer, Zhiwei Liu, Allan Hildesheim, Ligia Pinto, Katherine A. McGlynn, Jessica L. Petrick, Tram Kim Lam, Thomas R. O9Brien, Kelly Yu, Chien-jen Chen, Hwai-I Yang, Mei-Hsuan Lee, Jill Koshiol. Immunologic markers and the progression of liver disease in HCV-positive individuals [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2021; 2021 Apr 10-15 and May 17-21. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(13_Suppl):Abstract nr 836.