Novel Biomarkers and Liver Cancer

A special issue of Current Oncology (ISSN 1718-7729). This special issue belongs to the section "Gastrointestinal Oncology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 October 2025 | Viewed by 3046

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
ncRNA, Epigenetics and Genome Fluidity, CNRS UMR3244, Sorbonne University, PSL University, Institut Curie, Centre de Recherche, Paris, France
Interests: long non-coding RNA; signal transduction; liver cancer; extracellular vesicles; transcription regulation

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Guest Editor
Inserm, Univ Rennes 1, OSS (Oncogenesis, Stress, Signaling) Laboratory, UMR_S 1242, Centre de Lutte contre le Cancer Eugène Marquis, F-35042 Rennes, France
Interests: hepatocellular carcinoma; cholangiocarcinoma; cell plasticity; TGFβ signaling; circular RNA
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Liver cancer, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), is one of the main causes of cancer-related deaths, with an increasing incidence and mortality over recent years. Controlling liver cancer progression is a laborious task, due to its asymptomatic nature in the early stages of the disease. For advanced HCC, chemotherapeutic drugs, such as sorafenib and lenvatinib, have been widely used, resulting in the modest improvement of patients’ life expectancy, accompanied by serious side effects. Recently, immunotherapy has been established as a new line of treatment for HCC; however, only some patients efficiently respond to it. Therefore, the identification of novel molecules that can serve as diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers is of paramount importance.

In this Special Issue, we invite researchers and clinicians to publish original research articles or reviews within the scope of liver cancer biomarker identification that could potentially contribute to improved prognoses and enhance the prediction of therapy response.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Panagiotis Papoutsoglou
Dr. Cédric Coulouarn
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • biomarker
  • hepatocellular carcinoma
  • cholangiocarcinoma
  • prognosis
  • therapy response

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 18470 KiB  
Article
Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Reveals LEF1-Driven Wnt Pathway Activation as a Shared Oncogenic Program in Hepatoblastoma and Medulloblastoma
by Christophe Desterke, Yuanji Fu, Jenny Bonifacio-Mundaca, Claudia Monge, Pascal Pineau, Jorge Mata-Garrido and Raquel Francés
Curr. Oncol. 2025, 32(1), 35; https://doi.org/10.3390/curroncol32010035 - 9 Jan 2025
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1373
Abstract
(1) Background: Hepatoblastoma and medulloblastoma are two types of pediatric tumors with embryonic origins. Both tumor types can exhibit genetic alterations that affect the β-catenin and Wnt pathways; (2) Materials and Methods: This study used bioinformatics and integrative analysis of multi-omics data at [...] Read more.
(1) Background: Hepatoblastoma and medulloblastoma are two types of pediatric tumors with embryonic origins. Both tumor types can exhibit genetic alterations that affect the β-catenin and Wnt pathways; (2) Materials and Methods: This study used bioinformatics and integrative analysis of multi-omics data at both the tumor and single-cell levels to investigate two distinct pediatric tumors: medulloblastoma and hepatoblastoma; (3) Results: The cross-transcriptome analysis revealed a commonly regulated expression signature between hepatoblastoma and medulloblastoma tumors. Among the commonly upregulated genes, the transcription factor LEF1 was significantly expressed in both tumor types. In medulloblastoma, LEF1 upregulation is associated with the WNT-subtype. The analysis of LEF1 genome binding occupancy in H1 embryonic stem cells identified 141 LEF1 proximal targets activated in WNT medulloblastoma, 13 of which are involved in Wnt pathway regulation: RNF43, LEF1, NKD1, AXIN2, DKK4, DKK1, LGR6, FGFR2, NXN, TCF7L1, STK3, YAP1, and NFATC4. The ROC curve analysis of the combined expression of these 13 WNT-related LEF1 targets yielded an area under the curve (AUC) of 1.00, indicating 100% specificity and sensitivity for predicting the WNT subtype in the PBTA medulloblastoma cohort. An expression score based on these 13 WNT-LEF1 targets accurately predicted the WNT subtype in two independent medulloblastoma transcriptome cohorts. At the single-cell level, the WNT-LEF1 expression score was exclusively positive in WNT-medulloblastoma tumor cells. This WNT-LEF1-dependent signature was also confirmed as activated in the hepatoblastoma tumor transcriptome. At the single-cell level, the WNT-LEF1 expression score was higher in tumor cells from both human hepatoblastoma samples and a hepatoblastoma patient-derived xenotransplant model; (4) Discussion: This study uncovered a shared transcriptional activation of a LEF1-dependent embryonic program, which orchestrates the regulation of the Wnt signaling pathway in tumor cells from both hepatoblastoma and medulloblastoma. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Biomarkers and Liver Cancer)
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10 pages, 1735 KiB  
Article
Low CD8+ Density Variation and R1 Surgical Margin as Independent Predictors of Early Post-Resection Recurrence in HCC Patients Meeting Milan Criteria
by Rokas Stulpinas, Ieva Jakiunaite, Agne Sidabraite, Allan Rasmusson, Dovile Zilenaite-Petrulaitiene, Kestutis Strupas, Arvydas Laurinavicius and Aiste Gulla
Curr. Oncol. 2024, 31(9), 5344-5353; https://doi.org/10.3390/curroncol31090394 - 10 Sep 2024
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Abstract
Our study included 41 patients fulfilling the Milan criteria preoperatively and aimed to identify individuals at high risk of post-resection HCC relapse, which occurred in 18 out of 41 patients (43.9%), retrospectively. We analyzed whole slide images of CD8 immunohistochemistry with automated segmentation [...] Read more.
Our study included 41 patients fulfilling the Milan criteria preoperatively and aimed to identify individuals at high risk of post-resection HCC relapse, which occurred in 18 out of 41 patients (43.9%), retrospectively. We analyzed whole slide images of CD8 immunohistochemistry with automated segmentation of tissue classes and detection of CD8+ lymphocytes. The image analysis outputs were subsampled using a hexagonal grid-based method to assess spatial distribution of CD8+ lymphocytes with regards to the epithelial edges. The CD8+ lymphocyte density indicators, along with clinical, radiological, post-surgical and pathological variables, were tested to predict HCC relapse. Low standard deviation of CD8+ density along the tumor edge and R1 resection emerged as independent predictors of shorter recurrence-free survival (RFS). In particular, patients presenting with both adverse predictors exhibited 100% risk of relapse within 200 days. Our results highlight the potential utility of integrating CD8+ density variability and surgical margin to identify a high relapse-risk group among Milan criteria-fulfilling HCC patients. Validation in cohorts with core biopsy could provide CD8+ distribution data preoperatively and guide preoperative decisions, potentially prioritizing liver transplantation for patients at risk of incomplete resection (R1) and thereby improving overall treatment outcomes significantly. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Biomarkers and Liver Cancer)
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