Primary liver cancer is much more likely to take root when a naturally occurring enzyme is in short supply, a team of researchers has found at Mount Sinai Hospital’s Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute. Using a knockout mouse model, the team has found that the likelihood of hepatoma, or primary liver cancer, increases substantially when half the normal amount of an enzyme called Plk4 is present. Furthermore, 60 per cent of patients with hepatoma were missing one copy of the Plk4 gene in their cancers. The genetic basis for hepatoma has not previously been extensively explored. The study is published today in the August edition of the prestigious science journal, Nature Genetics.
