Hepatitis C and hepatocellular carcinoma in Latin America: Elimination as a path to cancer prevention

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of global morbidity and mortality [1]. The global prevalence of HCV was estimated at 0.75% in 2019, representing approximately 57.8 million infections [2]. Moreover, cirrhosis and other chronic liver diseases due to HCV infection were associated with 12.2 million disease-adjusted life-years in 2019 (26.3% of cirrhosis disease-adjusted life-years) [3]. In Latin America alone, there are ∼3.8 million individuals living with HCV and approximately half of them are estimated to have advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis [4]. HCV is also one the most common global causes of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and it is associated with a 15- to 20-fold increase in risk and is responsible for 10–25% of all cases of HCC [5,6].