Zenzi De Vos

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common form of primary liver cancer, usually develops on a background of chronic liver disease. The combination of persistent liver inflammation and the liver's inherent tolerogenicity creates a unique tumor microenvironment (TME), characterized by the presence of immunosuppressive immune cells. 
While early-stage HCC patients may benefit from curative treatment, therapeutic options for advanced-stage patients remain limited, with poor responses and significant side effects. This underscores the urgent need for novel therapeutic strategies, especially for advanced-stage HCC patients.
A crucial challenge in the search for new anti-cancer therapeutics is the poor translation of preclinical results to the clinic, which is in part attributed to the use of inappropriate experimental HCC models. Those classical experimental HCC models predominantly focus on murine HCC within the context of murine immunity and a murine TME. As murine immunity differs substantially from human immunity, these models fail to accurately replicate human HCC pathology. Consequently, therapeutics investigated in classical experimental HCC models lack translatability to the clinic. At the Gut-Liver Immunopharmacology Unit (GLIPh), we address this research gap by developing preclinical models that investigate human HCC in the context of human immunity, enabling the evaluation of promising therapeutic strategies with increased translation to the clinic.
 

• University Hospital Ghent, Hepatology Research Unit, Corneel Heymanslaan 10, Building B, third floor, 9000 Ghent