Rupture of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: a Tale of 20 Cases from a Tertiary Care Center in Northern India

Excerpt

Approximately 700,000 people die of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) each year worldwide, making it the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths [1]. HCC develops in the background of cirrhotic liver in 85–95% of cases [2]. Spontaneous rupture is a potentially life-threatening complication and is the third most common cause of death due to HCC after tumor progression and liver failure [3]. In Asia, approximately 10% of patients with HCC die of rupture each year [4]. There is a distinct geographical variation in the reported incidence of ruptured HCC. In the West, HCC rupture is relatively uncommon, with an incidence of less than 3% [5]. However in Asia, the incidence is relatively higher, ranging between 3 and 26% [6]. The literature on rupture HCC is scarce from India and there is no data on the exact incidence of HCC rupture from India [7, 8]. …