title: Novel hepatocellular carcinoma molecules with prognostic and therapeutic potentials.
abstract: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the predominant form of primary liver cancer, is the sixth most common cancer worldwide and the third leading cause of cancer-related death. The difficulty to diagnose early cancer stages, the aggressive behaviors of HCC, and the poor effectiveness of therapeutic treatments, represent the reasons for the quite similar deaths per year and incidence number. Considering the fact that the diagnosis of HCC typically occurs in the advanced stages of the disease when the therapeutic options have only modest efficacy, the possibility to identify early diagnostic markers could be of significant benefit. So far, a large number of biomarkers have been associated to HCC progression and aggressiveness, but many of them turned out not to be of practical utility. This is the reason why active investigations are ongoing in this field. Given the huge amount of published works aimed at the identification of HCC biomarkers, in this review we mainly focused on the data published in the last year, with particular attention to the role of (1) molecular and biochemical cellular markers; (2) micro-interfering RNAs; (3) epigenetic variations; and (4) tumor stroma. It is worth mentioning that a significant number of the HCC markers described in the present review may be utilized also as targets for novel therapeutic approaches, indicating the tight relation between diagnosis and therapy. In conclusion, we believe that integrated researches among the different lines of investigation indicated above should represent the winning strategies to identify effective HCC markers and therapeutic targets.
authors.affiliation: Bruna Scaggiante, Barbara Dapas, Gabriele Grassi, Department of Life Sciences, University Hospital of Cattinara, 34100 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Bruna
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Scaggiante
authors.affiliation: Bruna Scaggiante, Barbara Dapas, Gabriele Grassi, Department of Life Sciences, University Hospital of Cattinara, 34100 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kazemi
authors.affiliation: Bruna Scaggiante, Barbara Dapas, Gabriele Grassi, Department of Life Sciences, University Hospital of Cattinara, 34100 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pozzato
authors.affiliation: Bruna Scaggiante, Barbara Dapas, Gabriele Grassi, Department of Life Sciences, University Hospital of Cattinara, 34100 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dapas
authors.affiliation: Bruna Scaggiante, Barbara Dapas, Gabriele Grassi, Department of Life Sciences, University Hospital of Cattinara, 34100 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Rosella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Farra
authors.affiliation: Bruna Scaggiante, Barbara Dapas, Gabriele Grassi, Department of Life Sciences, University Hospital of Cattinara, 34100 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grassi
authors.affiliation: Bruna Scaggiante, Barbara Dapas, Gabriele Grassi, Department of Life Sciences, University Hospital of Cattinara, 34100 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zanconati
authors.affiliation: Bruna Scaggiante, Barbara Dapas, Gabriele Grassi, Department of Life Sciences, University Hospital of Cattinara, 34100 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Grassi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000378:metabolism; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D035683:MicroRNAs
keywords: Angiogenic factors; Biochemical markers; Epigenetic variations; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Micro-interfering RNA; Tumor stroma