Hepatobiliary Cancers: Translational Advances and Molecular Medicine: Volume 156 (Advances in Cancer Research, Volume 156)

Hepatobiliary cancer refers to primary malignant tumors originating in cells of the liver, bile ducts, and gallbladder. Globally, primary liver cancer, which includes hepatocellular carcinoma (~75 % of all cases) and intrahepatic biliary cancer or cholangiocarcinoma (~10-15 % 0f all cases) is the 6th most commonly diagnosed cancer and 4th leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. The vast majority of these highly malignant cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage where  treatment options are limited and patient survival outcomes are poor. The biological and therapeutic challenges posed by hepatobililiary cancers such as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)  and cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) are daunting, emphasizing a critical need to review and assess current and evolving basic, translational, and clinical research focused on addressing the critical obstacles that continue to limit progress towards achieving significant improvements in HCC and CCA clinical management and patient survival outcomes. Towards this goal, this special edition of Advances in Cancer Research is focused on providing  a comprehensive, timely and authoritative reviews covering such topics of significant scientific and clinical relevance, including hepatobiliary cancer risk mechanisms and risk-predictive molecular biomarkers; causes and functional intricacies of inter- and intratumor heterogeneity; novel insights into the role of tumor microenvironment and key signaling pathways in  promoting hepatobiliary cancer progression, therapeutic resistance and immunosuppression; emerging biomarkers of HCC and CCA prognosis;  advances in molecular genomics for personalizing tumor classification and targeted therapies;  innovative preclinical cell culture modeling for hepatobiliary cancer drug discovery; and current and emerging trends in hepatobiliary cancer molecular therapeutic targeting and immunotherapies. Review A comprehensive, timely, and authoritative volume highlighting recent basic, translational, and clinical research advances and challenges aimed at fostering new mechanistic insights into hepatobiliary cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma) pathogenesis and developing predictive and therapeutic strategies About the Author Alphonse E. Sirica, PhD, MS received his PhD degree in Biomedical Science from the University of Connecticut and his MS degree in Biology from Fordham University. After completing his Postdoctoral training in experimental oncology (liver carcinogenesis) with Dr. Henry C. Pitot at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he remained as faculty at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine from 1979 to 1984. In June 1984, he joined the VCU Department of Pathology faculty to develop a program in Experimental Pathology and in 1990 was promoted to the rank of full professor with tenure. From 1993 to 1999, he served as Chair of the Division of Experimental Pathology in the Department of Pathology. In 1999, he founded the Department's Division of Cellular and Molecular Pathogenesis and continued to serve as Division Chair for another 15 years, stepping down from this position in July 2014 to devote full time to his NIH funded research program. In 2019, he was appointed to a Distinguished Career Professorship at Virginia Commonwealth University and in 2020 appointed Professor Emeritus of Pathology at VCU. Dr. Sirica is an internationally recognized biomedical researcher and scholar in the areas of liver carcinogenesis, cholangiocyte biology and pathobiology, and cholangiocarcinoma, with extensive experience and expertise in cell and molecular cholangiocarcinogenesis and preclinical experimental therapeutics of cholangiocarcinoma. As principal investigator, Dr. Sirica had been funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health for 37 years. In June 2019, he was recognized by Expertscape as an Expertscape World Ex