Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Sub-Saharan Africa
Author: Michael Charles Kew
Number of pages: 360The book comprehensively covers all aspects of hepatocellular carcinoma (cancer) as it occurs in sub-Saharan black Africans and how the cancer differs from that in other parts of the world, in most of which it occurs infrequently. The first chapter is introduced with a discussion of the difficulty in recording all cases of this cancer in sub Saharan Africa and then covers its epidemiology, emphasising the very high incidence of liver cancer in sub Saharan black Africans. The relatively young age at which the tumor occurs in comparison with the older age of the patients in resource-rich regions is stressed. The sex distribution of the cancer is also discussed. The second chapter describes the ways in which hepatocellular cancer presents in black Africans, its symptoms and signs, and how its presentation differs from that in other parts of the world. The third chapter summarises the grave outlook for patients with the tumor, the very short survival times of the patients, and the reasons for their deaths. The fourth chapter discusses the diagnosis of the cancer and why this is far more difficult than it is in resource-rich countries. The fifth chapter deals with the pathology of the...