Cancers, Vol. 9, Pages 127: Liver Cancer: Molecular Characterization, Clonal Evolution and Cancer Stem Cells
Cancers, Vol. 9, Pages 127: Liver Cancer: Molecular Characterization, Clonal Evolution and Cancer Stem Cells
Cancers doi: 10.3390/cancers9090127
Authors:
Germana Castelli
Elvira Pelosi
Ugo Testa
Liver cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related death. The major forms of primary liver cancer are hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA). Both these tumors develop against a background of cirrhotic liver, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, chronic liver damage and fibrosis. HCC is a heterogeneous disease which usually develops within liver cirrhosis related to various etiologies: hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection (frequent in Asia and Africa), hepatitis C virus (HCV), chronic alcohol abuse, or metabolic syndrome (frequent in Western countries). In cirrhosis, hepatocarcinogenesis is a multi-step process where pre-cancerous dysplastic macronodules transform progressively into HCC. The patterns of genomic alterations observed in these tumors were recently identified and were instrumental for the identification of potential targeted therapies that could improve patient care. Liver cancer stem cells are a small subset of undifferentiated liver tumor cells, responsible for cancer initiation, metastasis, relapse and chemoresistance, enriched and isolated according to immunophenotypic and functional properties: cell surface proteins (CD133, CD90, CD44, EpCAM, OV-6, CD13, CD24, DLK1, α2δ1, ICAM-1 and CD47); the functional markers...
Source: Cancers - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Germana Castelli Elvira Pelosi Ugo Testa Tags: Review Source Type: research
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