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Reversing Hepatocellular Carcinoma Progression by Using Networked Biological Therapies

Authors' Affiliations: ¹ Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital and ² Comprehensive Oncology Centre, Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital, Hong Kong, China

Requests for reprints: Richard J. Epstein, Queen Mary Hospital, Room 404, Professorial Block, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China. Phone: 852-2855-3994; Fax: 852-2816-2863; E-mail: repstein{at}hku.hk.

The liver is distinguished from other tissues by (a) its detoxifying function, (b) its resistance to apoptosis, and (c) its regenerative response to damage. Hepatocellular carcinoma arises when chronic insults, such as hepatitis or iron overload, constitutively activate this regenerative program. Here, we propose that the proliferative response of the liver to damage underlies the resistance of hepatocellular carcinoma to cytotoxic therapy, and that hepatocellular carcinoma growth should therefore be more readily controlled by using a networked combination of noncytotoxic interventions to interrupt the damage-inducible regenerative pathway. To this end, hepatocellular carcinoma boasts a wealth of potential drug targets, including viral replication, the antiapoptotic immunosuppressant -fetoprotein, hepatic iron overload, inflammatory signaling, extracellular proteases, and growth factors. By blocking these positive feedback loops in parallel, and so returning the host environment to a more normal state, epigenetic repression of tumor-suppressor gene function may be reversed and tumor dormancy restored. Noncytotoxic maneuvers that short circuit damage resistance loops may thus represent an indirect form of gene therapy meriting incorporation into hepatocellular carcinoma clinical trials.

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