Partners in the Prevention of Liver Fibrosis and Cancer in Africa consortium - Prolifica - met in The Gambia recently for a two day kick off meeting. Funded by the European Commission, Prolifica has brought together investigators from The Gambia , Senegal, Nigeria, the UK, Italy and France.
The project has been established to identify causes of liver cancer in West African populations and to show that it can be prevented by effective treatment of hepatitis B infection.
Prolifica's participants have been brought together from institutions and governments in the West African Sub-Region and Europe.

From left: Professor Souleymane Mboup (Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar), Hon Fatou Lamin-Faye (Minister of Basic & Secondary Education, The Gambia), Professor Tumani Corrah (Unit Director, MRC (UK) The Gambia), Dr Edith Okeke (University of Jos Teaching Hospital, Nigeria), Dr Chris Wild (Director – International Agency for Research on Cancer)

Hepatitis B and liver disease: a big burden on Africa
Hepatitis B is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Africa. WHO estimates there are 350 million people chronically infected with the Hepatitis B virus (HBV). The majority of these individuals live in South East Asia, China and Sub-Saharan Africa. Each year approximately 600,000 to 800,000 people die as a result of chronic hepatitis B infection.

Liver cancer and liver failure from liver cirrhosis are common causes of death from chronic hepatitis infection. Liver cancer is among the 10 most common causes of cancer World-wide. In The Gambia as in other developing countries, liver cancer is the most common cancer in males and second only to cervical cancers in females.

The Gambia: a long history of Hepatitis B studies
Research into Hepatitis B infection has been ongoing in The Gambia for over three decades thanks to the partnership between the Gambia Government and the MRC. The successful introduction of Hepatitis B vaccination has almost eliminated chronic carriage in Gambians under the age of 25. However, chronic carriage of the virus, which may progress to chronic liver disease and liver cancer, remains high in Gambians over 25 years. Prolifica aims to address these issues by:

identifying new risk factors for liver cancer
demonstrating that treatment of chronic hepatitis B infection is feasible and that it is an effective method of reducing the incidence of liver cancer in the adult population
developing tests which identify patients with liver cancer at an early stage when treatment of the cancer might be successful.