Strikingly, in FL-N/35/IKKβΔhep mice, in which Ikkβ deletion was confirmed by western blot (Figure 5B) and which express similar levels of HCV RNA that the control FL-N/35 animals (Figure 5C), the frequency of tumor formation was indistinguishable from wt non-transgenic males (Figure 5A) and, similarly to spontaneous lesions, the single hepatic tumor that appeared in this cohort was negative for LTβ expression (not shown). This evidence concerns the gene IKBKB and neoplasm.