Scientists trace causal link between a tumor suppressor gene and liver cancer

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have taken the search for cancer-causing genes an important step forward. In a newly published paper, they confirm that a gene called DLC1 is a tumor suppressor. They have demonstrated in living mice that its deletion, inactivation or loss precipitates events culminating in an aggressive type of liver cancer closely related to common human epithelial cancers of the liver (also known as hepatocellular carcinoma, or HCC).