Hepatocellular carcinoma in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: an emerging menace.

By G. Baffy, E. Brunt, S. Caldwell. Journal of Hepatology, 2012

830 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common cancer worldwide that primarily develops in cirrhosis resulting from chronic infection by hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus, alcoholic injury, and to a lesser extent from genetically determined disorders such as hemochromatosis. HCC has recently been linked to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the hepatic manifestation of obesity and related metabolic disorders such as diabetes. This association is alarming due to the globally high prevalence of these conditions and may contribute to the rising incidence of HCC witnessed in many industrialized countries. There is also evidence that NAFLD acts synergistically with other risk factors of HCC such as chronic hepatitis C and alcoholic liver injury. Moreover, HCC may complicate non-cirrhotic NAFLD with mild or absent fibrosis, greatly expanding the population potentially at higher risk. Major systemic and liver-specific molecular mechanisms involved include insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia, increased TNF signaling pathways, and alterations in cellular lipid metabolism. These provide new targets for prevention, early recognition, and effective treatment of HCC associated with NAFLD. Indeed, both metformin and PPAR gamma agonists have been associated with lower risk and improved prognosis of HCC. This review summarizes current evidence as it pertains to the epidemiology, pathogenesis, and prevention of NAFLD-associated HCC.

Subfields: Cancer Research, Epidemiology, Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/77a6e8ab4aa29d451b6d3896e69dcf752551581e

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cancer Research

In Epidemiology

In Molecular Biology

Citations in the corpus

Obesity accelerates epigenetic aging of human liver (2014, background): “Aging and cancer are not only intricately linked to each other (30, 31) but also to obesity and metabolic syndrome (32).”
Liver Fibrosis, but no Other Histologic Features, Associates with Long-term Outcomes of Patients With Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (2015, background): “The outcomes analyzed were overall mortality (death from any cause) or liver transplantation (whichever occurred first); and liver-related events (ascites [detected clinically and/or on imaging], gastroesophageal varices/ bleeding [confirmed by endoscopy], portosystemic encephalopathy [diagnosed cli”
The Role of Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts and Fibrosis in Liver Cancer (2016, background): “HCC may occur in the absence of cirrhosis, in particular, in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (12) or subsets of patients with HBV infection (54).”