Abstract
Patient records from the Guam Cancer Registry were compared with patients listed in a health department viral hepatitis case registry and the numbers of liver cancer and viral hepatitis cases were compared by ethnicity. Hepatitis C was the form of viral hepatitis most common among liver cancer cases on Guam (63.3% of viral hepatitis-associated liver cancer cases). Since viral hepatitis is an important cause of liver cancer, studies such as the present one may provide the information necessary to establish programs (screening of populations at risk and infant vaccination in the case of hepatitis B, for example) that may lessen the impact of liver cancer in the future.
Highlights
Guam is the southernmost island of the Mariana Archipelago in the Western Pacific ocean
Patient records from the Guam Cancer Registry were compared with patients listed in a health department viral hepatitis case registry and the numbers of liver cancer and viral hepatitis cases were compared by ethnicity
Hepatitis C was the form of viral hepatitis most common among liver cancer cases on Guam (63.3% of viral hepatitis-associated liver cancer cases)
Summary
Guam is the southernmost island of the Mariana Archipelago in the Western Pacific ocean. Miles), tallest (1,332 feet), and most populous (159,358 in 2010) island of Micronesia (Cox et al, 1926; Carano, 1968; Guam State Data Center, 2012). Today the island is populated principally by indigenous Chamorros, including part-Chamorro (42.15%), Filipinos (26.31%), Micronesians other than Chamorros (7.17%), Caucasians (6.79%), Asians (6.20%), and Others (11.38%) (Guam State Data Center, 2012). A registry of viral hepatitis cases was created by reviewing communicable disease reports dating back to 1970. New cases are added to the registry from clinical or laboratory reports if they have not been previously listed. It is recognized that most such cases do not represent recent infections but may have been acquired at a much younger age when typically vague symptoms did not result in a clinical diagnosis
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