Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.
Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is an important cause of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) worldwide, especially in Asia. HBV induces HCC through multiple oncogenic pathways. Hepatitis-induced hepatocyte inflammation and regeneration stimulates cell proliferation. The interplay between the viral and host factors activates oncogenic signaling pathways and triggers cell transformation. In this review, we summarize previous studies, which reported that HBV induces host genomic instability and that HBV-induced genomic instability is a significant factor that accelerates carcinogenesis. The various types of genomic changes in HBV-induced HCC—chromosomal instability, telomere attrition, and gene-level mutations—are reviewed. In addition, the two viral factors, HBx and the pre-S2 mutant large surface antigen, are discussed for their roles in promoting genomic instability as their main features as viral oncoproteins.