Hepatocellular cancer. Current aspects of carcinogenesis

Abstract

The modern concept of general carcinogenesis is built on the basic knowledge of exogenous and endogenous factors. They change the body–organ–cell homeostatic and tissue basis and lead to genetic and molecular alterations followed by uncontrolled abnormal cell growth. We studied hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as an example of malignant neoplasm carcinogenesis. The article presents some major molecular and genetic alterations resulting in HCC as well as their association with immune microenvironment that mostly determines the onset and further tumor development. These are morphological, molecular, and genetic factors on which the HCC classification we propose is based. It involves 2 tumor classes (proliferating and nonproliferating) and will enable for determining the upcoming prospects for diagnosis of and treatment for this condition. Keywords: exogenous and endogenous risk factors, molecular and genetic and structural liver alterations, classification of hepatocellular carcinoma