Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major health problem worldwide. Currently, the only chance for obtaining a cure in patients with HCC is by either a surgical resection or liver transplantation.
However, many HCCs with scattered tumors cannot be operated on. In such patients, effective alternative therapies need to be discovered in order to treat patients in the early stages of this disease.
An article to be published on 28 October in the World Journal of Gastroenterology proposes a new target for therapy. A study was conducted by Dr. Satoshi Mamori, of Jikei University, in which he evaluated tumor biopsies in order to confirm the diagnosis of HCC.
The immunohistochemical expression of survivin in liver tumor specimens obtained from 17 patients was studied. In addition, to determine the survivin expression in response to anti-cancer drugs in early stage HCC, the survivin expression was determined after treating HCC cells with anti-cancer drugs under hypoxic culture conditions.