Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have uncovered a crucial molecular link between a viral infection and development of a common and fatal form of liver cancer. In the process, they have identified a possible way to treat this disease as well as a number of other cancers. In findings reported in the journal Molecular Cell, the researchers traced the pathway by which the hepatitis B virus (HBV) leads to development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and found that it “turns off” an enzyme known as GSK-3ß, which acts to suppress tumor formation as well as inhibit the spread of cancer.GSK-3ß could prove to be the Achilles heel for liver cancer and other tumors - including breast, colon, kidney and stomach - that use a similar “pathway” to cancer development, the researchers say.
