Abstrakt

Editorial Note on NASH limits Anti-Tumour Surveillance Treated HCC

Jessy Siba

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) can have viral or non-viral causes. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a crucial driver of HCC. Immunotherapy has been approved for treating HCC, but biomarker-based stratification of patients for optimal response to therapy is an unmet need. Here we report the progressive accumulation of exhausted, unconventionally activated CD8+PD1+ T cells in NASH-affected livers. In preclinical models of NASH-induced HCC, therapeutic immunotherapy targeted at programmed death-1 (PD1) expanded activated CD8+PD1+ T cells within tumours but didn't cause tumour regression, which indicates that tumour immune surveillance was impaired.