Author information

1 Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, USA.

2 Department of Gastroenterology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) incidence in the U.S. is increasing in specific subgroups of patients such as white men with hepatitis C and Hispanics with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.(1) HCC is the only cancer type with increased mortality over the past three decades throughout the nation, and with still dismal 5-year survival less than 18%.(2) HCC chemoprevention in individuals at high risk is likely the most impactful strategy to improve patient prognosis, although no such therapy has been established to date after a series of failed clinical trials of agents such as low-dose interferon.