Identified a mutation in progenitive cells as origin and therapeutic target of cholangiocarcinoma
In recent years, cancer research has been focused on identifying mutations in genes involved in tumour development. However, molecular mechanisms that contribute to disease progression remain quite unknown. The journal Nature publishes a paper in which a group of international researchers, led by Nabeel Bardeesy, professor at Harvard University, suggest that mutations in IDH enzyme (isocitrate dehydrogenase), which occur in liver progenitive cells, causes the progression of cholangiocarcinoma, a type of liver cancer.
In recent years, cancer research has been focused on identifying mutations in genes involved in tumour development. However, molecular mechanisms that contribute to disease progression remain quite unknown. The journal Nature publishes a paper in which a group of international researchers, led by Nabeel Bardeesy, professor at Harvard University, suggest that mutations in IDH enzyme (isocitrate dehydrogenase), which occur in liver progenitive cells, causes the progression of cholangiocarcinoma, a type of liver cancer.
Dr Josep M. Llovet, professor from the Department of Medicine of UB, ICREA professor who heads the Research Group on Hepatic Oncology of the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) and director of the Liver Cancer Program at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (New York), collaborated in the research, together with Daniela Sia and Helena Cornella, members of the former IDIBAPS research group.
Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (IHCC) is the second most frequent hepatic neoplasia and represents 10% of liver cancers (around 70,000 cases per year in the world). This type of tumour is difficult to detect at early stages, so only 30% of patients can be operated; besides, there is not any molecular therapy. This study proves that IDH mutation, present in 25% of ICC cases, makes that liver progenitive cells, instead of differing from hepatocytes, proliferate and become hepatocytes, epithelial cells of bile ducts, where this type of cancer starts.