TERT and hepatocellular carcinoma: Accordingly, a systematic meta-analysis, evaluating the distribution of TERTp mutations in 1939 primary HCC from four continents, demonstrated that such nucleotide changes are very common in the HCC of various aetiology, with mutation rates higher in Europe (56.6%) than Asia (42.5%), the latter cases being predominantly related to HBV infection and TERT gene altered by the virus integration in the human genome [41].