IFNL3 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Results reported in the present study were in agreement with that of the latter studies as none of the five IL28B genetic variants investigated in this study had any significant effect on the advancement of HCV infection to cirrhosis and/or HCC; though, we did observe that these SNPs could have a significant role in the establishment of HCV infection as they showed significant differences in distribution between patients and healthy control subjects.