Role of TGF-beta and Smad7 in HCC development and progression

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common and deadliest cancers worldwide. TGF-β is a driver of chronic liver disease progression, which eventually ends in HCC. TGF-β, a tumor suppressor in cancer development, exerts tumor promoting characteristics during cancer progression. This, together with a strong heterogeneity of HCC leads to a very complex situation in regard of TGF-β signaling in liver cancer. Here we show that Smad7, an inhibitor of canonical TGF-β signaling, is overexpressed in 69% of 54 analyzed matched human HCC/normal liver samples indicating that TGF-β/Smad7 might be involved in hep…