Hepatocellular cancer Surveillance in Nigeria: The time for action is now!

Abstract

Hepatocellular cancer(HCC) is the 6th most common cancer in Nigeria and the 4th leading cause of cancerrelated mortality in Nigeria. Globocan,estimates that the incidence of HCC was over 75,722 cases in Nigeria. Survival from liver cancer has been a dismal 2 months from diagnosis to time and death and the mortality from liver cancer is expected to rise to over 50%from the current numbers over the next 20 years. Liver cancer surveillance is the defining intervention that can modify the landscape of liver cancer survival in Nigeria and hence concerted effort is required to reverse the trend of poor survival and the incidence to mortality ratio which approaches one.