Thailand has an estimated eight million infected individuals, with an incidence reaching up to 87.7 per 100,000 in males and 36.3 per 100,000 in females,
in the northeast of the country which has the highest incidence
of CCA worldwide. Although there are various
estimates of the total number of cases occurring
annually, a conservative estimate suggests that 20,000 or
more deaths/year occur due to intra- and extra-hepatic
CCA in the northeast of Thailand alone. This mortality
is directly related to difficulties in diagnosing the
disease at an early stage when surgical cure is possible.
Given the poor prognosis due to late-stage discovery of
the disease, and the fact that CCA commonly manifests at
or after the age of 40, with males being more commonly
infected than females, not only is the patient directly affected,
but the family for which he or she is responsible is
also liable to socio-economic hardship