Main description:

Primary liver cancer is the third most deadly and fifth most common cancer worldwide (~500,000 deaths annually), with a sharp increase of incidence in the United States in recent years. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CC) are the major types of primary liver cancer. Risk factors include gender, hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), cirrhosis, metabolism diseases, diabetes, obesity, toxins, excess alcohol consumption and smoking. Liver cancer arises most frequently in inflammatory livers with extensive oxidative stress due to viral hepatitis which causes over 80% of HCC cases worldwide. Currently, survival remains dismal for most HCC and CC patients, largely due to the tumor's aggressiveness at the time of diagnosis and the lack of effective therapy.

Contents:

Part I: Introduction

1. Overview of HCC: biology and pathology

Xin Wei Wang, Joe Grisham and Snorri Thorgeirsson

2. Overview of CC:

Part II: Liver development and pathogenesis

3. Embryonic development of the liver

Kenneth S. Zaret

4. Human hepatic cell lineages

Nelson Fausto

5. Pathology of Human Liver Cancer

Masamichi Kojiro

Part III: Genetics and epidemiology of liver cancer

6. HCC

Hashem El.Serag

7. CC

Greg Gores

Part IV: Molecular Basis of Cancer Susceptibility

8. Yusuke Nakamura (NCC)

9. Hereditary liver diseases with a high risk to develop HCC

Markus Grompe, [ALSO Marie-Annick Buendia]

10. Genetics and epigenetics of preneoplastic liver diaseses and human HCC

11. HBV: Jack Wands

12. HCV: Stanly Lemon

13. Fibrosis and cirrhosis studies

David Brenner

14. Methylation status in chronic liver disease and HCC

Yae Kanai (Japan)

Part V. Animal models

15. Transgenic mouse models

Snorri Thorgeirsson & Joe Grisham

16. Mosaic mouse model

Scott Lowe

17. Zebrafish model

Zhiyuan Gong (NUS):

Part VI: Global gene expression profiling of human liver cancer

18. Integrative and functional genomics of HCC

Snorri Thorgeirsson:

19. Molecular signatures of metastatic HCC

Xin Wei Wang

20. Liver cancer heterogeneity and tumor subtypes

Jessica Rossi

21. Gene expression studies in cholangiocarcinoma

Yoichi Furokawa

Part VII: Cancer stem cells

22. Snorri Thorgeirsson

23. Tania Roskams

Part VIII: Liver cancer genetics in the clinic

24. Biomarkers and clinical staging of liver cancer

Josep Llovet

25. Molecular signaling in HCC

Hong Yang Wang (Shanghai)

26. Molecular oncology and HCC

Zhao-You Tang (Shanghai)

27. Molecular pathogenesis of HCC

Irene Ig (Hong Kong)