Eliminating Hepatitis Key to Treating HCC in Africa

The prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and hepatitis D virus (HDV) has a direct relationship to the prevalence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), researchers concluded after conducting a systematic review.

In a report published in BMC Cancer, the investigators stated that an in-depth knowledge of the correlation of viral hepatitis to HCC will help form better policies and improve treatment of viral hepatitis-associated HCC in Africa.

The researchers drew data from articles and studies published in MEDLINE (PubMed), Google Scholar, Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science, and African wide web. The study focused on articles addressing viral hepatitis-associated HCC in Africa from 1980 to 2019. The final analysis included 272 studies.

“Viral hepatitis-related HCC incidence changed by 1.17%, 0.82%, and 3.34% for every 1% change in the prevalence of HBV, HCV, and HDV respectively, per decade,” the researchers wrote. “The incidence of HBV-related HCC decreased by - 0.50% over the last 40 years, while HCV-related HCC increased.”

Viral hepatitis is one of the major causes of HCC, which remains a leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Africa.

“Although efforts have been made by different role players including individual governments as well as regional and international health organizations to minimize the infection rates of HBV and HCV in Africa, the prevention of HBV-related HCC through HBV vaccination is yet to achieve maximum success,” the authors concluded. “There is also a need for increased and sustained efforts towards the elimination of HBV and HCV as public health concerns.”

—Priyam Vora

Reference:

Dakurah O, Tamandjou C, Zunza M, Preiser W, Maponga T. Viral hepatitis associated hepatocellular carcinoma on the African continent, the past, present, and future: a systematic review. BMC Cancer. 2021;715(21) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-021-08426-y