title: Heterogeneity of liver cancer and personalized therapy.
abstract: Liver cancer is an extraordinarily heterogeneous malignant disease among the tumors that have so far been identified. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) arises most frequently in the setting of chronic liver inflammation and fibrosis, and takes a variety of course in individual patients to process to tumor. The risk factors such as HBV and/or HCV infections, aflatoxin infection, abuse alcohol intake, metabolic syndrome, obesity and diabetes are closely related to the environmental and genetic susceptibilities to HCC. The consequent resulting genomic instability, molecular and signal transduction network disorders and microenvironmental discrepancies are characterized by the extraordinary heterogeneity of liver cancer. The histology-based definition of the morphological heterogeneity of liver cancer has been modified and refined to treat patients with targeted therapies, but this still cannot solve all the problems. Lack of consistent outcome for anticancer agents and conventional therapies in liver cancer treatment calls for assessing the benefits of new molecularly targeted drugs and combined therapy, under the heterogeneity condition of tumor. The present review article will provide the complex mechanism and phenotype of liver cancer heterogeneity, and help us to execute precision medicine in a really personalized manner.
authors.affiliation: International Co-operation Laboratory on Signal Transduction, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Institute, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200438, China; National Center for Liver Cancer, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: International Co-operation Laboratory on Signal Transduction, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Institute, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200438, China; National Center for Liver Cancer, Shanghai, China; National Laboratory for Oncogenes and Related Genes, Cancer Institute, RenJi Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200441, China. Electronic address: hywangk@vip.sina.com.
authors.forename: Hongyang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D025202:Molecular Diagnostic Techniques; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D010641:Phenotype; D057285:Precision Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor
keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma; Heterogeneity; Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma; Personalized therapy