Shu Fukushima, Kazuo Honda, Masaaki Awane, Eiji Yamamoto, Ryouji Takeda, Ichiro Kaneko, Akira Tanaka, Taisuke Morimoto, Koichi Tanaka, Yoshio Yamaoka – 1 June 1995 – Using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method, we tested for the hepatic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletion in 40 hepatic tumors (28 hepatocellular carcinomas [HCCs], 9 other malignant tumors, and 3 benign tumors) and in the livers of 71 patients, including 16 pediatric patients with end‐stage liver disease who underwent living related donor liver transplantation and 16 liver donors.