Task: Answer Verification
Input (English): Question: Are occult and previous hepatitis B virus infection associated with hepatocellular carcinoma in United States patients with chronic hepatitis C?
Answer: Although almost half the patients in the HALT-C Trial had serological evidence of previous HBV infection, there was no difference in prevalence of anti-HBc in serum or HBV DNA in liver between patients who did or did not develop HCC. In the United States, neither previous nor occult HBV infection is an important factor in HCC development among patients with advanced chronic hepatitis C.
Output (English): no