Isao Okazaki and Yutaka Inagaki Pages 753 - 763 ( 11 )
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a cancer with extremely poor prognosis. This review discusses the pathological characteristics of multi-step hepatocarcinogenesis, tumor growth, invasion and metastasis, the expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their inhibitors via signal transduction in relation to dedifferentiation of hepatoma cells. It introduces the reports on anti-cancer agents in the field of MMP science, and finally describes novel strategies for the early stages of HCC in relation to cancer stem cells.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), Hepatitis B virus (HBV), Hepatitis C virus (HCV), Alcoholic liver diseases, Non-alcoholic liver diseases, Bone marrow-derived stem cell, Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP), Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP), Cancer invasion, Cancer metastasis, Cancer treatment, Anti-cancer agents, cancer stem cell.
Department of Internal Medicine, Sanno Hospital, International University of Health and Welfare, 8-10-16 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052, Japan.