HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA

CHARACTERISTICS A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY OF 34 PATIENTS AT JHL, LAHORE

Abstract

Introduction: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the commonest primary malignant cancer of the liver in the world.
Characteristics of our population suffering from HCC are not known, this study aims to present epidemiological, clinical and laboratory
characteristics of HCC patients..Design: A retrospective study. Setting: At Jinnah hospital, Lahore. Period: 36 months. Material & m e t h o ds
HCC was diagnosed according to the guide lines given by EASL-2000. The data was later analyzed by SPSS13. Results. A total of 34 patients
were included in the study. Majority patients were male 21(80%) and belonged to urban setting (21). Pain abdomen 21(61.8%) and Ascites
22(64.7%) were the commonest presentations. 15(44%) patients were suffering from HCV and 12 (35.3%) were negative for both HCV & HBV,
while 9 out of these were also not alcoholic. Most of the patients had symptoms present for 1 -6 (76%) months and majority presented in either
stage III or IV (91 %), none of the patient presented in stage I. Most the patients 25(73.5%) had tumor size larger than 5 cm at presentation and
similarly 20 (59%) had more than one lesions at presentation, stage of tumor was positively associated (p <0.02) with number of tumor lesions.
Conclusion. HCC does occur in a cirrhotic background but a good number of patients were not cirrhotic and need to be investigated further
for other possible dietary risk factors. Pain and abdominal distension in a cirrhotic patient should be addressed to immediately so as to diagnose
HCC at an earlier stage.