Hepatitis B virus and liver cancer - Essay Example

Analysis of the geographic prevalence of liver cancer and HBV show that there are similarities and it is this link that has proved to be the first step in the understanding of etiological relationship of HBV with liver cancer. (4). Liver cancer is spread throughout the world. However, there are variances in the presence of the disease in different regions of the world. Looking at the world from the perspective of the developed and developing divide, the incidence of liver cancer is more in the developing world, rather than in the developed world.

However, there is a trend of reducing prevalence of liver cancer in the developing world, while there is a rising prevalence of liver cancer in the developed world. The more effective HBV preventive programs coupled better food and nutrition in the developing world are believed to be the reasons for the lower growth rates of liver cancer in the developing world, while migration of people from the developing world to the developed world coupled with rising incidence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the developed believed are assumed as the causes for the increased growth rates of liver cancer in the developed world. (5). Incidence statistics of liver cancer for the period 1993-1997, provided by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), show that continent of Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands have the highest incidence of liver cancer.

For example in Qidong County, China the crude rate for liver cancer is 107.4 and in Nagasaki City of Japan the crude rate for liver cancer is 67.1. (6). Europe lower rates of incidence are found in almost all the regions as can be seen from the LC AAIRs of 4.7 to 8.9 among men in Southern, Eastern and Western Europe. It is even lower in Northern Europe, which has an LC AAIRs of 2.7 to 3.2 (7). In the United States of America there is a geographical variance in the incidence of liver cancer in the white populations with the northern