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The Role of Hepatitis C virus and Possible Risk factors in development of Hepatocellular carcinoma: 400 Patients based study

The Egyptian Journal of Internal Medicine volume 31, pages 64–72 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

Background and aims

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the commonest tumors and considered the fifth most common malignant neoplasm and a major cause of death. Egypt has increased incidence of HCC cases, as Egypt has the highest prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The aim was to study the epidemiological characteristics of HCC in Assiut, Egypt.

Patients and methods

A descriptive observational study design was applied for the present study. The studied population was 400 patients with HCC (288 of them were male and 112 were female) who fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for HCC. Data were analyzed for exploring the clinical, etiological, radiological, and tumor characteristics of the studied patients.

Results

The mean age of the patients was 59.85±9.1 years. Most cases (68%) were from rural areas, 38% of the patients were in agricultural occupation, and 32% of the patients were accidentally discovered to have HCC .The most frequent symptom was abdominal pain (15%). HCV antibody was present in 63% of the patients, HBV infection was recorded in 28%, coinfection was seen in 3%, and no viral infection was present in 6%. Diabetes mellitus was present in 37% and obesity in 24% of the patients. Right lobe of the liver was the most frequent affected lobe (61%), and 69% of the cases had a single lesion.

Conclusion

HCC incidence had been increasing in the past years in Egypt. The high prevalence of HCV infection in Egypt makes the surveillance strategies important for early detection of HCC in these patients to provide better curative treatment modalities in the early stages.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Internal Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt

    Fatema Abu-bakr Abdelmoez, Hala Mostafa Imam, Lobna Abdel Wahid, Wael Ahmed Abbas, Mohamed Abozaid Ali Abozaid &  Hossam Mahmoud Abdelwahab MSc (Assistant Lecturer of Internal Medicine)

  2. Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt

    Naglaa Kamal Idriss

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  1. Fatema Abu-bakr Abdelmoez
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  2. Hala Mostafa Imam
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  7. Hossam Mahmoud Abdelwahab MSc
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Correspondence to Hossam Mahmoud Abdelwahab MSc.

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Abdelmoez, F.Ab., Imam, H.M., Idriss, N.K. et al. The Role of Hepatitis C virus and Possible Risk factors in development of Hepatocellular carcinoma: 400 Patients based study. Egypt J Intern Med 31, 64–72 (2019). https://doi.org/10.4103/ejim.ejim_50_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.4103/ejim.ejim_50_18

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