Commentary

Abstract

The prevalence of virus induced liver disease in Pakistan is among the highest in the world.  Both Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C lead to chronic active and chronic persistent hepatitis resulting in the development of cirrhosis.  As the infection also causes DNA damage it is often complicated by the development of hepatocellular carcinoma.  The best treatment for this is liver transplantation  Having said this the relative inaccessibility  of transplantation for the vast majority of Pakistanis as well as the advanced stage at first detection in most patients makes this treatment unsuitable for many.  In this scenario adjuvant treatments have been demonstrated to improve both survival and quality of life.