Seroprevalence of hepatitis B surface antigenemia and viral infectivity among liver cancer patients accessing care at a tertiary health facility in Southwest Nigeria.

Introduction: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a public health challenge globally, associated with hepatocellular carcinoma and known to be highly endemic in developing countries. Its comorbidity with cancer in infected patients poses greater challenge in their management. This study was therefore designed to determine the burden of HBV infection and its correlation among cancer patients assessing care in a tertiary health facility in southwest Nigeria.

Methodology: A total of 122 plasma samples from consenting cancer patients were tested for Hepatitis B surface Antigen (HBsAg) using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent (ELISA) assay and their plasma HBV DNA quantified by COBAS Amplicor HBV Monitor assay. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 21 and chi-square (χ2) test was used to determine association while p < 0.05 considered statistically significant.

Results: An overall HBsAg rate of 13.9% was found among the study population. The distribution of HBsAg positivity among the subjects with condition of cancer showed 9(23.7%) with chronic liver disease (CLD), 4(10.8%) in primary liver carcinoma (PLCC) and 4(8.5%) with pyrexia of unknown origin (PUO). The CLD group had highest viral infectivity (Mean=8324.3 Copies/Ml) and lowest among those with PLCC (468.4 Copies/Ml). The rate for HBsAg was higher in male (14.7%) than in their female (13.0%) counterparts with significant statistical association by gender (p>0.0314) and peaked (23.5%) among age group 20-29 years.

Conclusion: This study identified high rate of HBV infection among the population and could be investigated as a predictor for cancer. This finding is vital in the management of cancer patients coinfected with HBV.