Select Abstracts from the 4th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Gastrointestinal Oncology

摘要

IntroductionHepatocellular cancer (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Its incidence is increasing in the United States as a result of hepatitis C. This tumor is refractory to chemotherapy, and radiation is not possible due to liver toxicity. Surgery is the only effective form of therapy; unfortunately, due to associated liver disease, most patients are not candidates for surgical resection. While liver transplantation is an effective therapy in some cases, donor organs are scarce. For these reasons, the overwhelming majority of patients with HCC succumb to their disease. Recent work has demonstrated that active specific immunotherapy is a promising approach to the treatment of HCC. Our lab has recently developed a spontaneous model of HCC, created by injecting tumorigenic hepatocytes (HCCT) into the spleens of normal, immunocompetent mice. These animals provide a realistic model of HCC, allowing the study of specific immunotherapies. We propose the use of contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study the progression/regression of HCC in a model of spontaneous HCC.