Prevalence of hepatocellular carcinoma in cirrhotic patients in tropical medicine department, zagazig university hospitals

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a primary malignancy of the liver cells. It is one of the most common malignant tumors in the world. Cirrhosis is the strongest and the most common known risk factor for HCC, particularly cirrhosis related to HCV and HBV infections. This study aims at finding the prevalence of HCC in cirrhotic patients attending the outpatient clinic and those admitted in the tropical medicine department, Zagazig university hospitals.Patients and methods: This study comprised of 1956 cirrhotic patients with 346 HCC lesions which were divided into three groups; group I composed of 74 cirrhotic patients of Child A, group II composed of 588 cirrhotic patients of Child B and group III composed of 1294 cirrhotic patients of Child C. Clinical assessment, laboratory evaluation and US were performed to all patients.Results: In this study, there were 346 HCC cases diagnosed over one year period giving an overall proportion of 17.7 % was diagnosed from total of 1956 cirrhotic patients. Patients who were diagnosed as HCC, their ages ranged from 33-74 years, however 69 % were males and 28.7 % were females and so most of them were diagnosed mainly among males.Conclusions: HCC is the third most common cause of cancer death. In a majority of cases, HCC occurs in the sitting of cirrhosis with underlying chronic viral hepatitis (B or C), alcoholism or non-alcoholic steato-hepatitis. Surgical resection and liver transplantation are considered the best curative options for HCC.