Resumen
Many more people are dying each year from primary liver cancers arising in obesity-related fatty liver disease. Often these cancers are a consequence of fatty liver disease progression, with inflammation, scarring and cirrhosis. Less often, cancers develop in the presence of fat without cirrhosis. Evidence from animal models suggests the immune response to fat is important. We have explored genetic variations in candidate immunoregulatory genes. Our study of nearly one-thousand patients with fatty liver disease, comparing 391 with cancers to 594 without, indicates that genetic variation in a gene (PDCD1) that codes for the T cell receptor PD-1 may be important. Inherited variations that affect function of immunoregulatory proteins like PD-1 may underpin why some patients with fatty liver disease?whether they have cirrhosis or not?are more likely to develop liver cancer.