Study reveals how fatty liver disease leads to liver cancer

study, published in Nature, reveals a complex interplay between cellular metabolism and DNA damage that drives the progression of fatty liver disease to cancer. The findings suggest new paths forward for preventing and treating liver cancer and have significant implications on our understanding of cancer’s origin and the effects of diet on our DNA.

The incidence of the most common form of liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), has grown by 25-30% in the past two decades, with much of the growth attributed to the dramatic rise in fatty liver disease, which currently affects 25% of adult Americans. About 20% of individuals with fatty liver disease have a severe form of the disease, called metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), that greatly increases the risk of HCC. However, how MASH transitions to liver cancer is not well understood.