Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide and accounts for the third-leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Over the past decades, advances have been made in the field of surgery, but effective treatment of HCC is lacking. Due to a marked male predominance in morbidity and mortality in HCC patients, it has long been considered that sex hormones play a role in HCC development. Recently estrogen has been proven to exert protective effects against HCC through IL-6 restrictions, STAT3 inactivation and tumour-associated macrophage inhibition. While IL-6-dependent STAT3 activation is considered a key event in inflammation-induced liver cancer, the anti-inflammation effect of estrogen is well documented. The roles of the estrogen receptor and aromatase and interactions between microRNAs and estrogen in HCC have been investigated. In this review, we present a novel model to elucidate the mechanism of estrogen-mediated inhibition of HCC development through an anti-inflammation effect and provide new insights into the roles of estrogen in liver disease.

Liver metastasis is a frequent occurrence in patients with breast cancer; however, the available treatments are limited and ineffective. While liver-specific homing of breast cancer cells is an important feature of metastasis, the formation of liver metastases is not random. Indeed, breast cancer cell factors contribute to the liver microenvironment. Major breakthroughs have been achieved recently in understanding breast cancer liver metastasis (BCLM). The process of liver metastasis consists of multiple steps and involves various factors from breast cancer cells and the liver microenvironment. A further understanding of the roles of breast cancer cells and the liver microenvironment is crucial to guide future work in clinical treatments. In this review we discuss the contribution of breast cancer cells and the liver microenvironment to liver metastasis, with the aim to improve therapeutic efficacy for patients with BCLM.

Background. N-Acetyltransferase 10 (NAT10) has been reported to be expressed at high levels in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, its role in chemoresistance is unclear. This study is aimed at investigating whether NAT10 regulates the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and chemoresistance in HCC. Methods. HCC cell lines (Huh-7, Bel-7402, SNU387, and SNU449) were treated with remodelin, an inhibitor of NAT10, or transfected with small inhibitory RNAs (siRNAs) targeting NAT10 or Twist. The EMT was induced by hypoxia. The CCK-8 assay was used to quantify cell viability, the EdU incorporation assay to assess cell proliferation. siRNA knockdown efficiency and epithelial/mesenchymal marker expression were assessed by western blotting. Results. Knockdown of NAT10 using siRNA or inhibition of NAT10 using remodelin increased the sensitivity of HCC cell lines to doxorubicin; similar effects were observed in cells transfected with the Twist siRNA. Inhibition of NAT10 using remodelin also reversed the ability of doxorubicin to induce the EMT in HCC cells. Furthermore, inhibiting NAT10 reversed the hypoxia-induced EMT. Finally, we confirmed that combining doxorubicin with remodelin delayed tumor growth and reduced tumor cell proliferation in a mouse xenograft model of HCC. Conclusions. NAT10 may contribute to chemoresistance in HCC by regulating the EMT. The mechanism by which NAT10 regulates the EMT and doxorubicin sensitivity in HCC cells merits further investigation.

Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancy of liver and HCC-related morbidity and mortality remains at high level. Researchers had investigated whether and how reduced E-cadherin expression impacted the prognosis of patients with HCC but the results reported by different teams remain inconclusive. A systematic literature search was performed in all available databases to retrieve eligible studies and identify all relevant data, which could be used to evaluate the correlation between reduced E-cadherin expression and clinicopathological features and prognosis for HCC patients. A fixed or random effects model was used in this meta-analysis to calculate the pooled odds ratios (OR) and weighted mean differences (WMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Total 2439 patients in thirty studies matched the selection criteria. Aggregation of the data suggested that reduced E-cadherin expression in HCC patients correlated with poor 1-, 3- and 5-year overall survival. The combined ORs were 0.50 (n = 13 studies, 95% CI: 0.37–0.67, Z = 4.49, P<0.00001), 0.39 (n = 13 studies, 95% CI: 0.28–0.56, Z = 5.12, P<0.00001), 0.40 (n = 11 studies, 95% CI: 0.25–0.64, Z = 3.82, P = 0.0001), respectively. Additionally, the pooled analysis denoted that reduced E-cadherin expression negatively impacts recurrence-free survival (RSF) with no significant heterogeneity. The pooled ORs for 1-, 3- and 5- year RSF affected by down-regulated E-cadherin were 0.73 (n = 6 studies, 95% CI: 0.54–1.00, Z = 1.95, P = 0.05), 0.70 (n = 6 studies, 95% CI: 0.52–0.95, Z = 2.32, P = 0.02), 0.66 (n = 5 studies, 95% CI: 0.48–0.90, Z = 2.64, P = 0.008). And what’s more, reduced E-cadherin expression tended to be significantly associated with metastasis (OR = 0.31, 95% CI: 0.16–0.60, Z = 3.50, P = 0.0005), vascular invasion (OR = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.59–0.98, Z = 2.14, P = 0.03), advanced differentiation grade (OR = 0.31, 95% CI: 0.21–0.45, Z = 6.04, P<0.00001) and advanced TMN stage (T3/T4 versus T1/T2) (OR = 0.61,95% CI:0.38–0.98, Z = 2.05, P = 0.04). Reduced E-cadherin expression indicates a poor prognosis for patients with HCC, and it may have predictive potential for prognosis of HCC patients.