Role of estrogen in hepatocellular carcinoma: is inflammation the key?

Journal of Translational Medicine

Xiujun Cai¹  Rui Ma¹  Hui Lin¹  Yili Feng¹  Liang Shi¹ 

[1] Chawnshang Chang Live Cancer Center, Department of General Surgery, Sir Run-Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310016, China

关键词: Inflammation;    Hepatocellular carcinoma;    Estrogen receptor;    Estrogen;   

Others  :  815093
DOI  :  10.1186/1479-5876-12-93

 received in 2013-12-18, accepted in 2014-03-28,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide and accounts for the third-leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Over the past decades, advances have been made in the field of surgery, but effective treatment of HCC is lacking. Due to a marked male predominance in morbidity and mortality in HCC patients, it has long been considered that sex hormones play a role in HCC development. Recently estrogen has been proven to exert protective effects against HCC through IL-6 restrictions, STAT3 inactivation and tumour-associated macrophage inhibition. While IL-6-dependent STAT3 activation is considered a key event in inflammation-induced liver cancer, the anti-inflammation effect of estrogen is well documented. The roles of the estrogen receptor and aromatase and interactions between microRNAs and estrogen in HCC have been investigated. In this review, we present a novel model to elucidate the mechanism of estrogen-mediated inhibition of HCC development through an anti-inflammation effect and provide new insights into the roles of estrogen in liver disease.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Shi et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

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