An estimated one-quarter of adults in the U.S. have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), an excess of fat in liver cells that can cause chronic inflammation and liver damage, increasing the risk of liver cancer. Now, UT Southwestern researchers have developed a simple blood test to predict which NAFLD patients are most likely to develop liver cancer.
Tag: Liver Cancer
Study Links Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption with Liver Cancer
A study of more than 90,000 postmenopausal women found that those who consumed at least one sugar-sweetened beverage daily faced a 78% higher risk of developing liver cancer compared with people who consumed less than three servings per month of such beverages.
Henry Ford Health is First in the World to Offer Latest Advancement in MR-Guided Radiation Therapy
Henry Ford Health is the first in the world to complete a full course of patient treatments using the latest advancement in magnetic resonance (MR)-guided radiation therapy, which integrates real-time magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and linear acceleration to deliver precise and accurate radiation treatment more rapidly than ever before.
External-beam radiation therapy underused for people with liver cancer awaiting transplant
People with liver cancer awaiting transplantation could benefit from non-invasive radiation treatments but are rarely given this therapy, according to a new analysis of U.S. national data. Findings will be presented today at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting.
Peter Adams and Gerald Shadel awarded $13 million from NIH to study aging and liver cancer
Sanford Burnham Prebys professor Peter D. Adams, Ph.D., and Salk Institute professor Gerald Shadel, Ph.D., have been awarded a grant from the NIH’s National Institute on Aging for $13 million, funding a five-year project to explore the connection between aging and liver cancer.
Study reveals rates of the most common form of liver cancer are rising in rural areas while slowing in urban areas
Study reveals rates of the most common form of liver cancer are rising in rural areas while slowing in urban areas
Radio-wave Therapy Is Safe for Liver Cancer Patients and Shows Improvement in Overall Survival
Researchers at Wake Forest School of Medicine have shown that a targeted therapy using non-thermal radio waves is safe to use in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of liver cancer. The therapy also showed a benefit in overall survival. The study findings appear online in 4Open, a journal published by EDP Sciences.
World Trade Center Responders with the Greatest Exposure to Toxic Dust Have a Higher Likelihood of Liver Disease
Mount Sinai researchers have found evidence for the first time that World Trade Center responders had a higher likelihood of developing liver disease if they arrived at the site right after the attacks as opposed to working at Ground Zero later in the rescue and recovery efforts. Their study links the increase in liver disease risk to the quantity of toxic dust the workers were exposed to, which was greatest immediately after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Drug Combination Gets Advanced Liver Cancer Patients to Surgery
A combination of the kinase-inhibitor drug cabozantinib and the immunotherapy drug nivolumab can make curative surgery possible in some liver cancer patients who would normally not be considered surgery candidates.
Diet Plays Critical Role in NASH Progressing to Liver Cancer in Mouse Model
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine found in a mouse model that when fed a Western diet rich in calories, fat and cholesterol, the mice progressively became obese, diabetic and developed NASH, which progressed to HCC, chronic kidney and cardiovascular disease.
Liver Cancer Tumors Appear to Be Resistant to Immunotherapy in Patients With Underlying Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH)
Immunotherapy is not only significantly less effective in liver cancer patients who previously had a liver disease called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), but actually appears to fuel tumor growth, according to a Mount Sinai study published in Nature in March. NASH affects as many as 40 million people worldwide and is associated with obesity and diabetes.

NYU Langone Brings Top Talent to Advance Cancer Care in Brooklyn
To help develop the latest treatment methods and expand cancer care service, Thomas Daniels, MD, has been appointed service chief of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Perlmutter Cancer Center–Sunset Park in Brooklyn.
Study Explores Way to Block Liver Cancer Interaction with Nervous System
Article title: AICAR and Compound C negatively modulate HCC-induced primary human hepatic stellate cell activation in vitro Authors: Katrin Böttcher, Lisa Longato, Giusi Marrone, Giuseppe Mazza, Leo Ghemtio, Andrew Hall, Tu Vinh Luong, Stefano Caruso, Benoit Viollet, Jessica Zucman-Rossi, Massimo…
Current Liver Cancer Screenings May Leave African Americans at Greater Risk
Early detection could reduce the number of African Americans dying from liver cancer, but current screening guidelines may not find cancer soon enough in this community, according to a study published in Cancer in February.
Ionic liquid formulation uniformly delivers chemotherapy to tumors while destroying cancerous tissue
A Mayo Clinic team, led by Rahmi Oklu, M.D., Ph.D., a vascular and interventional radiologist at Mayo Clinic, in collaboration with Samir Mitragotri, Ph.D., of Harvard University, report the development of a new ionic liquid formulation that killed cancer cells and allowed uniform distribution of a chemotherapy drug into liver tumors and other solid tumors in the lab.
Study Explores Changes in Liver Cancer Cell Metabolism in Response to Galactose Sugar
Article title: Global changes to HepG2 cell metabolism in response to galactose treatment Authors: Robert A. Skolik, Jason Solocinski, Mary E. Konkle, Nilay Chakraborty, Michael A. Menze From the authors: “Here we demonstrate that the metabolic poise in tumor-derived HepG2 cells…

Researcher Developing Scoring System to Redefine How U.S. Patients are Prioritized for Liver Transplant
Researchers with Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine are collaborating with faculty at the University of Pennsylvania to develop a risk score that more comprehensively prioritizes liver cancer patients for transplantation.
A First-in-Human Clinical Trial Shows Microbubbles May Improve Effectiveness of Radiation Therapy in Patients with Liver Cancer
Bursting gas-filled microbubbles using ultrasound waves sensitizes tumors to targeted radiation, reducing tumor growth and improving overall survival after treatment.

Researchers Find County Differences in Liver Mortality in the U.S.
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Emory researchers found significant differences in death rates even within the same state, according to a recently published study in Gastroenterology.

Culturally Relevant Programs Needed to Help End Hep B in Black Communities, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center Researchers Report
Hepatitis B disproportionately impacts U.S. Blacks, including African American and Haitian Blacks. Both communities suffer from widespread misinformation and access to care issues that might avert disease detection and prevention, according to a study published in Cancer Causes & Control by researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

$50K Grant Supports Exploration of Treatment for Liver Cancer
Incidence and mortality of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a common type of liver cancer, is increasing in the United States. Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey experts have received a $50,000 award through the Translational Research Pilot Award Program that will support the examination of how a drug combination impacts the growth of both human HCC cancer cells and tumors in laboratory models, with the goal of identifying a new treatment for patients with this disease.

Liver cancer treatment showing positive results, Tulane study says
A biomedical engineering research team from Tulane University is developing a novel cancer treatment hepatocellular carcinoma, a highly fatal form of liver cancer.

UCLA researchers receive $2.97 million grant to develop test for early detection of liver cancer
UCAL researchers are developing a nanotechnology-enabled cancer diagnostic solution that will help detect early stage liver cancer for people who are at risk of developing the disease.
Study Explores Possible Candidates for Vaccine Treatment for Liver Cancer
Article title: Experimental analysis of T cell epitopes for designing liver cancer vaccine predicted by system-level immunoinformatics approach Authors: Syed Aun Muhammad, Sidra Zafar, Samana Zahra Rizvi, Imran Imran, Fahad Munir, Muhammad Babar Jamshed, Amjad Ali, Xiaogang Wu, Numan Shahid,…

Novel Antisense Drug Shows Promise in Slowing Fatty Liver Disease
A first-in-class clinical trial suggests a novel treatment measurably slowed progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease to its more progressive and deadly form.
New Liver Cancer Research Targets Non-Cancer Cells to Blunt Tumor Growth
“Senotherapy,” a treatment that uses small molecule drugs to target “senescent” cells, or those cells that no longer undergo cell division, blunts liver tumor progression in animal models according to new research from a team led by Celeste Simon, PhD, a professor of Cell and Developmental Biology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and scientific director of the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute. The study was published in Nature Cell Biology.

New treatment extends lives of people with most common type of liver cancer
For the first time in over a decade, scientists have identified a first-line treatment that significantly improves survival for people with hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of liver cancer.

Racial Inequalities in Liver Cancer Deaths Soared After Launch of Hepatitis C Drugs
A study explored racial inequalities in death from liver cancer before and after the introduction of lifesaving drugs for hepatitis C. Results showed that from 1979 to 1998, racial inequalities in mortality from liver cancer in the U.S. were declining. But, from 1998 to 2016, of the 16,770 deaths from liver cancer among blacks, the excess relative to whites increased from 27.8 percent to 45.4 percent. Concurrently, racial inequalities in death decreased for major risk factors for liver cancer, such as alcohol and diabetes.

Researchers receive $2.8 million grant to develop blood-based test for liver transplant candidate selection
Researchers from the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center received a $2.8 million, five-year grant from the National Cancer Institute to help develop a blood-based test to improve the selection and prioritization for patients with liver cancer who need a liver transplantation.

Cedars-Sinai to Study How Fat May Promote Cancer Spread to Liver
A diagnosis of pancreatic or colon cancer often sparks dread about the disease’s likely next destination: the liver. That’s because liver metastasis is a leading cause of death in these patients. A Cedars-Sinai scientific team has been awarded a $9.1 million grant by the National Cancer Institute to study this often-fatal process, with the goal of understanding how cancer spreads to the liver and finding ways to block it.
New Drug Prevents Liver Damage, Obesity and Glucose Intolerance in Mice on High-Fat Diet
Mice given a new drug targeting a key gene involved in lipid and glucose metabolism could tolerate a high-fat diet regimen (composed of 60% fat from lard) without developing significant liver damage, becoming obese, or disrupting their body’s glucose balance.
Heterogeneity of Liver Cancer Cells Helps Explain Tumor Progression in Patients, Mount Sinai Research Found
Many liver cancer tumors contain a highly diverse set of cells, a phenomenon known as intra-tumor heterogeneity that can significantly affect the rate at which the cancer grows, Mount Sinai researchers report. The immune system’s contribution to this heterogeneity can have major clinical implications.

Math Equation Predicts and Detects Liver Cancer
University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center researchers developed a math equation to predict and detect liver cancer and identified when healthy cells become cancerous.
Natural Toxins in the Global Food Supply Continue to Threaten the Health of Underprivileged Communities
Naturally occurring chemicals in the global food supply are known to pose a burden on worldwide health. New studies have found that a certain foodborne toxin, in addition to its known health effects,, is also linked to vaccine resistance, and for the first time the global burden of disease from foodborne arsenic, lead, cadmium, and methyl mercury has been quantified.. The Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) will present new studies as part of its Global Disease Burden Caused by Foodborne Chemicals and Toxins symposium on Monday, Dec. 9 from 1:30-3:00 p.m. as part of its 2019 Annual Meeting at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia. This symposium will provide updates to a 2015 World Health Organization (WHO) publication which analyzed the disease burdens caused by these toxins.
New research suggests proton radiation therapy can benefit patients with challenging liver tumors
Two new studies support and inform the use of proton radiation therapy to treat patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a common but often fatal type of liver cancer for which there are limited treatment options. The studies were published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics, the flagship scientific journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).
Study suggests new metabolic target for liver cancer
Disrupting a metabolic pathway in the liver in a way that creates a more “cancer-like” metabolism actually reduces tumor formation in a mouse model of liver cancer. This surprising finding from a Univ. of Iowa study identifies the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier as a potential target for preventing liver cancer.