Inclusion Criteria:

- A group of patients with no history of liver disease, alcohol consumption less than
40g a week, and no risk factors for viral hepatitis were enrolled from the General
Internal Medicine clinics. All subjects in this control group were documented to have
normal liver biochemistry.

- Consecutive patients with HCC and patients with HBV & HCV that were age, gender, and
race/ethnicity matched to the HCC patients were enrolled from the Liver Clinic during
this period. The diagnosis of HCC was made by histopathology, and if histopathology
was not available by two imaging modalities (ultrasound [US], magnetic resonance
imaging [MRI], or computed tomography) showing a vascular enhancing mass >2cm. HBV
infection status was based on hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). HCV infection
status was based on serum HCV antibody and HCV-RNA positive.