Hepatocellular carcinoma in South Sudan: possible aetiologies, presentation, diagnostic challenges and ways forward

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the common malignancies in both the developed and developing worlds. This is most likely due to its wide variety of causes. The aetiologies vary from one part of the world to another determined by many factors ranging from geography, life style, availability of advanced medical care etc  among many others. Though the presentation and diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma is straight forward in many developed countries, the reality is different in many resource-constrained regions and countries such as South Sudan which has only one Computer-Tomography machine country wide, lack of most of the  non-invasive liver screening tests as well as coupled with lack of medical personnel. However, in spite of these challenges, the authors of this article believe that the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma can be reasonably made considering the clinical presentation of this condition and maximizing the use of available diagnostic  tools.

KEY WORDS: common malignancies, hepatocellular carcinoma, South Sudan