Hepatocellular carcinoma

Introduction

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. The majority of HCCs is associated with chronic liver disease due to chronic viral hepatitis, excessive alcohol intake, and metabolic diseases. Although common mechanisms and pathways involved in HCC development have been described for these etiological factors, HCC is an extremely heterogenous cancer. Importantly, treatment of the underlying cause, e.g., inhibition of hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication or eradication of hepatitis C virus (HCV) reduces but does not eliminate the risk of HCC development; thus HCC incidence continues to rise globally. Curative treatments are limited to patients with early-stage disease. Patients with advanced disease can benefit from systemic treatments but only a proportion of patients respond, and the clinical outcome of HCC remains overall dismal.

Objectives

  • Understand HCC development, focusing on the interplay between energetic metabolism, inflammation and epigenetics in the liver and liver crosstalk with the gut, the brain, and the autonomic nervous system (ANS).
  • Identify new non-invasive biomarkers to better classify patients, capture relevant diseases transitions and hasten drug-development.
  • Develop new tools for HCC risk assessment and HCC classification to inform the design of new combination trials based on treatment targets and patient/tumor profiling.

Strategy

Projects

Publications

2023 Sep -

Liver Int.

PMID : 37402699

Axon guidance molecules in liver pathology: Journeys on a damaged passport.

Chicherova I, Hernandez C, Mann F, Zoulim F, Parent R.

2021 Apr -

J Clin Med.

PMID : 36207612

Host Epigenetic Alterations and Hepatitis B Virus-Associated Hepatocellular Carcinoma. J Clin Med.

Zeisel et al.

2022 Nov -

Hepatology

PMID : 35253915

Hepatic inflammation elicits production of proinflammatory netrin-1 through exclusive activation of translation

Barnault et al.

2020 Nov -

Gut

PMID : 32114505

Hepatitis B protein HBx binds the DLEU2 lncRNA to sustain cccDNA and host cancer-related gene transcription

Salerno et al.

2024 Feb -

Cancers (Basel)

PMID : 34206504

The lncRNAs in HBV-Related HCCs: Targeting Chromatin Dynamics and Beyond.

Alfano et al.

2018 Nov -

Viruses

PMID : 30380697

Non-Coding RNAs and Hepatitis C Virus-Induced Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Plissonnier et al.

2018 Nov -

J Hepatol

PMID : 30193922

Dietary exacerbation of metabolic stress leads to accelerated hepatic carcinogenesis in glycogen storage disease type Ia

Gjorgjieva et al.

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