Assistant lecturer, Molecular Virology and Immunology Unit, Cancer Biology Department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, 11796, Egypt.

Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most common malignancies in the world. HCC development is a multistep and complex process and DNA methylation is a main epigenetic mechanism involved in hepatocarcinogenesis. The methylation status of CpG islands has been shown to be involved with oncogene activation and tumor suppressor gene inactivation. Promoter CpG island hypermethylation may be a potential biomarker for early detection of HCC. 416 HCV related chronic liver disease patients were enrolled in this study and assigned into 208 HCC patients; 108 patients with HCV related liver cirrhosis; 100 patients with chronic hepatitis C. In addition to 100 participants who were enrolled as control group. Methylation status of tumor suppressor genes; p14, P15&P73 and the DNA Mismatch repair gene (O6MGMT) was analyzed by using EpiTect Methyl qPCR Array technology. Methylation frequency could be used to monitor whether the patient with chronic hepatitis C will be subjected to liver cirrhosis or even HCC. So, we can conclude that methylation process may be an early event in hepatocarcinogenesis.