A comparative study on hepatocellular carcinoma between South Africans and Japanese from the viewpoint of nuclear DNA content

Abstract

Summary Nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) content of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in 41 South African and 47 Japanese patients at autopsy was analysed by dual-wavelength microspectrophotometry. The DNA distribution patterns were classified as type I, II, III or IV and as low ploidy (types I, II) or high ploidy (types III, IV), according to the degree of dispersion. We found a significantly higher incidence of high ploidy in South African HCC than in Japanese HCC. Moreover, type IV was significantly more frequent among South Africans than among the Japanese. These findings demonstrate that large differences in biological characteristics and clinical behaviour of HCC between South Africa and Japan may reflect differences in DNA distribution patterns which we observed between these two races.

Hepatitis B virus-associated hepatocellular carcinoma in South Africa in the era of HIV

“…Fifty-five percent of HCC patients in this study were Black Africans who are thought to be at higher risk of HCC than other racial groups due to greater exposure to factors predisposing to HCC, such as dietary iron overload and HBV and HIV infection [ 32 , 33 ]. Cirrhosis prevalence in HBV-associated HCC among African patients has previously been reported to be 44–63% [ 34 – 36 ]. However, only 23% of our patients had known underlying cirrhosis at HCC diagnosis, probably because their diagnoses of cirrhosis were based on clinical rather than histological parameters.…”