Pathogenesis from Inflammation to Cancer in NASH-Derived HCC

Simiao Yu; Jingxiao Wang; Haocheng Zheng; Ruilin Wang; Nadia Johnson; Tao Li; Ping Li; Jie Lin; Yuan Li; Jin Yan; Ying Zhang; Zhenyu Zhu; Xia Ding

doi:10.2147/JHC.S377768

Pathogenesis from Inflammation to Cancer in NASH-Derived HCC

J Hepatocell Carcinoma. 2022 Aug 26:9:855-867. doi: 10.2147/JHC.S377768. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Simiao Yu^#¹, Jingxiao Wang^#², Haocheng Zheng^#³, Ruilin Wang^#⁴, Nadia Johnson¹, Tao Li³, Ping Li¹, Jie Lin⁵, Yuan Li⁵, Jin Yan⁶, Ying Zhang⁶, Zhenyu Zhu⁶, Xia Ding^{3

7}

Affiliations

¹ Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 100700, People's Republic of China.
² School of Life Sciences, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 100029, People's Republic of China.
³ School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 100029, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Department of Hepatology of Traditional Chinese Medicine, The Fifth Medical Center of PLA General Hospital, Beijing, 100039, People's Republic of China.
⁵ National Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine Constitution and Preventive Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 100029, People's Republic of China.
⁶ Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The Fifth Medical Center of PLA General Hospital, Beijing, 100039, People's Republic of China.
⁷ Centre of Research for Traditional Chinese Medicine Digestive, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 100029, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of primary liver cancer and one of the deadliest cancers worldwide. As opposed to the majority of patients with HCC, approximately 20-30% of cases of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)-derived HCC develop malignant tumours in the absence of liver cirrhosis. NASH is characterized by metabolic dysregulation, chronic inflammation and cell death in the liver, which provide a favorable setting for the transformation of inflammation into cancer. This review aims to describe the pathogenesis and the underlying mechanism of the transition from inflammation to cancer in NASH.

Keywords: hepatocellular carcinoma; immune microenvironment; inflammation to cancer transition; metabolic dysregulation; non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

National Key Research and Development Project, Ministry of Science and Technology (No.2018YFC1704106); National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.81630080); National Natural Science Foundation Youth Fund (No. 82104651).