Posted on May 20, 2016 by MFeiock
High Levels of Protein p62 Predict Liver Cancer
Study in mice and human tissues suggest new prognostic and therapeutic approach
Researchers from Dr. Michael Karin's laboratory (Project 1) have discovered that high levels of the protein p62 in human liver samples are strongly associated with cancer recurrence and reduced patient survival. In mice, they also found that p62 is required for liver cancer to form.
Dr. Michael Karin said that “by defining factors that allow liver cells to progress from pre-cancer to cancer, we were able to find one — p62 — that we can also use to predict a liver cancer patient’s outcome following full removal of a previous liver tumor".
The study published online May 19 in Cancer Cell
READ ENTIRE UC San Diego Health Press Release
This research was funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health (R01CA163798, R01CA118165, P01DK098108, R01CA172025, R01DK108743, R01CA192642, 5P30CA030199), Superfund Research Program (P42ES010337) and American Association for Study of Liver Diseases/American Liver Foundation.
Umemura, Atsushi et al (2016). "p62, Upregulated during Preneoplasia, Induces Hepatocellular Carcinogenesis by Maintaining Survival of Stressed HCC-Initiating Cells"
Cancer Cell , Volume 29 , Issue 6 , 935 - 948. PMID: 27211490; PMCID: PMC4907799
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