SAGES Magazine

THE SOUTH AFRICAN GASTROENTEROLOGY REVIEW 2021 | VOLUME 19 | ISSUE 2 | 34 IN REMEMBRANCE Chris Kassianides - On behalf of the trustees and faculty of the Gastroenterology Foundation of SSA “When you set out on your journey to Ithaca, pray that the road is long, full of adventure, full of knowledge.... ‘ Ithaca by Constantine Cavafy Professor Michael Charles Kew, a leading hepatologist who paved the way showing the association of the Hepatitis B virus and Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) died on 26 th May 2021 at the Constantiaburg hospital in Cape Town. He was 82 years old. Ever the consummate clinical and translational scientist, Mike spent over four decades at the forefront of research in hepatology beginning with a seminal publication in 1981, forty years ago, on the first page of the first volume of the journal Hepatology. Working with David Shafriz, HBV DNA extracts in 13 patients from SA with HCC and showing that integration of HBV – DNA into the human genome occurred in conjunction with malignant transformation. He and others subsequently showed that chronic infection with HBV was closely linked to liver cancer, and probably nowhere more strikingly than in sub-Saharan Africa. In a series of epidemiological, clinical, histological, virological and molecular studies, Mike mapped out the close association of HCC with chronic HBV infection, the integration of HBV DNA into the tumour cells and the contributing factors of age, sex, iron status and environmental factors in the progression and expression of HCC, thereby establishing himself as the foremost authority on this significant tumour. Michael Charles Kew was born in 1939 in Johannesburg, South Africa. His parents, Max and Dorothy Kew, were South African citizens, of Irish descent; his father a businessman. In remembrance of Mike Kew: a remarkable academic