Obesity and Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Liver cancer is a common form of cancer that affects approximately 30,650 new individuals each year (1). The most common form of liver cancer is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which is more predominate in men over women. Along with gender, age also is a large role in the probability of getting HCC. Generally, most of the individuals that are diagnosed with liver cancer are 45 and older, with an average age of 63 (1). Another nonmodifiable factors that can lead to HCC is ethnicity. The risk of having liver cancer greatly increases if you are from the Pacific Islands or are an Asian American (2). Some common behavioral risk factors that can increase an individual’s change of getting HCC are alcohol consumption, type 2 diabetes, chronic viral hepatitis, and obesity (1). While all of these factors can lead to liver cancer, obesity has become more popular recently with an increase in the amount of overweight individuals. In the last decade alone, over one billion people worldwide are estimated to be overweight (5). In the research articles used, BMI was the common tool to determine if an individual was overweight or obese.

In the cells, obesity leads to the decrease in gut microbia, which in turn will increase the levels of deoxycholic acid (DCA). DCA is able to stimulate senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) that has been shown to contribute to cancer development (6). SASP factors have been known to affect cell growth that has to do with inflammation and tumorigenesis promotion. IL-6 and PAI-14,5 have also been shows to increase liver cancer in obese mice (6). In a study done with mice, two different groups were fed different dietary foods. One group was fed a high-fat diet while the other followed a more normal lean die...

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...er." American Cancer Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Feb. 2014.

2. "Liver Cancer Risk Factors." Cancer Treatment Centers of America. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Feb. 2014.

3. M. Burza, C. Pirazzi, C. Maglio, et al. PNPLA3 I148M (rs738409) genetic variant is associated with hepatocellular carcinoma in obese individual, Elsevier, 44: 1037-1041, 2012.

4. S. Caldwell, D. Crespo, H. Kang, A. Al-Osaimi. Obesity and hepatocellular carcinoma, Gastroenterology, 127: 97-103, 2004.

5. A. Mathur, E. Franco, J. Leone, H. Osman-Mohamed, H. Rojas, N. Kemmer, G. Neff,

A. Rosemurgy, A. Alsina. Obesity portends increased morbidity and earlier recurrence following liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma. HPB, 15:504-510, 2013.

6. S. Yoshimoto, T. Loo, K. Atarashi, et al. Obesity-induced gut microbial metabolite promotes liver cancer through senescence secretome, Nature, 499: 97-101, 2013.