Commentary
End-stage NAFLD with liver cancer has an abysmal prognosis and effective medical therapies are lacking, therefore a better understanding of the disease mechanisms will ultimately help to improve patients’ care. The pathogenesis of NAFLD and transition to HCC is multifactorial, yet inflammation is considered a key element. It is now established that inflammatory processes drive fibrosis and disease progression in NASH. They prepare the ground for hepatocellular carcinoma development, while immunity also exerts antitumour activities. Interestingly, novel techniques are available to better understand inflammation.
In their review, M. Peiseler and F. Tacke, one of the PanNASH editors (University Medicine Berlin, Germany), highlight some of the emerging paradigms, and summarise recent advances in preclinical and clinical studies aimed at modulating the inflammatory cascade.
As stated by the authors in their conclusion, “clinically, more personalised diagnostics based on microbiome, tumour immune landscape and liver immune cell heterogeneity, will help to identify and tailor therapies for different patient cohorts.”
