Liver Cancer

Recent advances in liver stem cell research have demonstrated the existence and investigated the role of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in primary liver cancer, consolidating the concept that most of the unmet clinical needs in the management of liver cancer, such as tumor regrowth after radical treatment and resistance to current therapies, may reflect the unopposed persistence of a CSC compartment, left relatively undertreated by current strategies.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the sixth most common solid tumor and the third-most lethal on a global scale, accounts for 90 percent of primary liver malignancies, with the remaining 10 percent being represented by cholangiocarcinoma and a few rarer histotypes. In up to 80 percent of cases, HCC arises on the background of chronic liver disease or cirrhosis with alcohol ...