Research in fish provides new clues about deadly form of liver cancer
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of liver cancer, is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Although there are several treatment options available, they are largely unsuccessful because the disease is so poorly understood. Clinical studies of patients with HCC, combined with studies using mice and other animal models, have provided some clues, but many questions about how to diagnose and treat this deadly form of cancer remain. Zhiyuan Gong and Serguei Parinov from the National University of Singapore decided to pursue these questions using zebrafish as a model system. Their study uncovers new information that might help to diagnose and treat HCC in humans, and shows that zebrafish are a powerful and cost-effective model to study liver cancer. Gong and Parinov publish their results in Disease Models & Mechanisms on July 5th, 2011.