Metastatic liver cancer; Targeting c-Met protein may be effective for patients

Good news today comes in the way of a personalized treatment for metastatic liver cancer-hepatocellular carcinoma . Metastatic liver cancer most commonly originates in the lungs, breasts, large intestine, pancreas, or stomach. This personalized treatment may be feasible by targeting the protein c-Met, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers.

In the article published today online from The Medical News is this quote, "Hanning You, M.D., Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow, and C. Bart Rountree, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics and pharmacology, targeted c-Met, a known receptor for hepatocyte growth factor, the substance that appears to drive liver cancer metastasis. In a pre-clinical translational study, they show that c-Met is overexpressed in metastatic liver cancer cells and is associated with a poor prognosis".

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Also in the article other data was published in six manuscripts and 1,051 patients, Hanning You, M.D offered, "Through this analysis we demonstrated and confirmed that c-Met activation is strongly associated with poor prognosis and aggressive features in patients with liver cancer tumors."

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The researchers feel by targeting the protein c-Met, ( researchers suppressed tumor growth and proliferation in a mouse model), may allow for better treatment in 45 percent of HCC patients who have c-Met positive tumors. Quoted from the article; "Currently the five year survival of HCC is only 2 percent when diagnosed after metastasis, according to the data. The five-year-," said Rountree. "Sorafenib, the most recently approved mediation for advanced HCC, benefits patients with an extra two months survival."

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