Hepatitis B virus integrations promote local and distant oncogenic driver alterations in hepatocarcinogenesis

Infection by Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) is the main risk factor for Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) worldwide. HBV can directly drive carcinogenesis through integrations in human genome. This integrative analysis of a French cohort of 190 patients mainly coming from Europe and Africa provides a deep characterization of HBV integrations, in relation with viral and host genomics and clinical features. Clonal HBV integrations directly contribute to HCC development through alterations of cancer driver genes, either at distance when co-localizing with copy number alterations, either locally through viral Enhancers. Together, this analysis gives new insights on HBV-associated driver mechanisms involved in hepato-carcinogenesis.EGA study EGAS00001004629