Home Print this page Email this page Small font sizeDefault font sizeIncrease font size
Users Online: 3525

 

Home About us Editorial board Search Ahead of print Current issue Archives Submit article Instructions Subscribe Advertise Contacts Login 
     
REVIEW ARTICLE
Year : 2015  |  Volume : 56  |  Issue : 4  |  Page : 231-235

Reasons why West Africa continues to be a hotbed for hepatocellular carcinoma


1 Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, St Mary's Campus, London, United Kingdom
2 Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, St Mary's Campus, London, United Kingdom; Department of Medicine, Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Nigeria; Digestive Diseases Unit, Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, United Kingdom
3 Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, St Mary's Campus, London, United Kingdom; Department of Medicine, Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Nigeria
4 Department of Medicine, Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Nigeria

Correspondence Address:
Nimzing G Ladep
Department of Medicine, Imperial College, London, St Mary's Campus, South Wharf Road, London W2 1NY, United Kingdom

Login to access the Email id

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None


DOI: 10.4103/0300-1652.165032

Rights and Permissions

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) exhibits a huge disease burden on West Africa, with a large proportion of all HCC cases worldwide occurring in the sub-region. The high HCC prevalence is due to the endemicity of a number of risk factors, most notably hepatitis B, C and HIV. West African HCC also displays a poor prognosis. Generally speaking, this is owing to more aggressive tumours, late patient presentation and inadequate management. Exposure to chronic viral hepatitis, more carcinogenic West African strains of hepatitis B virus and carcinogens such as aflatoxin B1 all encourage tumour growth. Lack of patient confidence in the healthcare system contributes to poor health-seeking behaviors and management of the disease can be lacking, due in part to poor health infrastructure, resources available and lack of access to expensive treatment. There is also much we do not know about West African HCC, especially the effect rising obesity and alcohol use may have on this disease in the future. Suggestions for improvement are discussed, including surveillance of high-risk groups. Although there is much to be done before West African HCC is thought to be a curable disease, many steps have been taken to move in the right direction.


[FULL TEXT] [PDF]*
Print this article     Email this article
 Next article
 Previous article
 Table of Contents

 Similar in PUBMED
   Search Pubmed for
   Search in Google Scholar for
 Related articles
 Citation Manager
 Access Statistics
 Reader Comments
 Email Alert *
 Add to My List *
 * Requires registration (Free)
 

 Article Access Statistics
    Viewed5955    
    Printed197    
    Emailed0    
    PDF Downloaded19    
    Comments [Add]    
    Cited by others 14    

Recommend this journal