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Perelman School of Medicine Finds Potential New Treatment Strategy for Liver Cancer Patients
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is the most typical type of liver cancer in adults. According to the National Cancer Institute, it is to blame for 80% of primary liver tumors, or malignancies that start in the liver rather than spread there from other organs. Worldwide, there have been around a million occurrences of HCC, and every year, about 29,000 Americans are given the diagnosis. The main known causes of HCC are thought to include chronic liver inflammation, obesity, and alcoholism. The disease is rarely treated since it is often only discovered once it has advanced past the point at which surgical removal is still a possibility. Furthermore, liver transplants, which can alleviate benign illness, frequently may not be available to persons with severe HCC. There are hardly many pharmacological treatments therapy for HCC, and they almost never succeed in curing the condition. Thus, the urgent need for new therapeutic approaches.
A study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found that liver cancer's quick growth creates a vulnerability in its energy-production and cell-building processes that may be successfully exploited utilizing a new combination-treatment method. In August, scientists discovered that hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most prevalent type of primary liver cancer, modifies its metabolism in a way that leaves it vulnerable to reductions in the availability of an essential substance called arginine. They found that this arginine vulnerability was present in every single HCC tumor, regardless of the specific genetic alterations that gave rise to each tumor.
The researchers showed in preclinical trials that arginine deprivation leads HCC tumors to enter a non-growing stage while preventing the survival-promoting response that results. In this condition, a new class of medications that specifically target senescent cells can successfully eradicate the tumors.
Read more about this potential new treatment strategy from Penn Medicine here: https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2022/august/liver-cancer-supercharged-metabolism-offers-a-new-treatment-strategy-penn-study-suggests
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Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is the most typical type of liver cancer in adults. According to the National Cancer Institute, it is to blame for 80% of primary liver tumors, or malignancies that start in the liver rather than spread there from other organs. Worldwide, there have been around a million occurrences of HCC, and every year, about 29,000 Americans are given the diagnosis. The main known causes of HCC are thought to include chronic liver inflammation, obesity, and alcoholism. The disease is rarely treated since it is often only discovered once it has advanced past the point at which surgical removal is still a possibility. Furthermore, liver transplants, which can alleviate benign illness, frequently may not be available to persons with severe HCC. There are hardly many pharmacological treatments therapy for HCC, and they almost never succeed in curing the condition. Thus, the urgent need for new therapeutic approaches.
A study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found that liver cancer's quick growth creates a vulnerability in its energy-production and cell-building processes that may be successfully exploited utilizing a new combination-treatment method. In August, scientists discovered that hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most prevalent type of primary liver cancer, modifies its metabolism in a way that leaves it vulnerable to reductions in the availability of an essential substance called arginine. They found that this arginine vulnerability was present in every single HCC tumor, regardless of the specific genetic alterations that gave rise to each tumor.
The researchers showed in preclinical trials that arginine deprivation leads HCC tumors to enter a non-growing stage while preventing the survival-promoting response that results. In this condition, a new class of medications that specifically target senescent cells can successfully eradicate the tumors.
Read more about this potential new treatment strategy from Penn Medicine here: https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2022/august/liver-cancer-supercharged-metabolism-offers-a-new-treatment-strategy-penn-study-suggests