CC: An Insidious Cancer

Dr Abigail Zabron, AMMF’s Research Fellow at Imperial College London, has produced a paper entitled, “The challenge of cholangiocarcinoma: dissecting the molecular mechanisms of an insidious cancer” which has just been published online in, “Disease Models and Mechanisms”.

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the various areas of basic CC research that has been covered in recent years, giving current molecular mechanistic knowledge,  which has led to the pathways of cholangiocarcinogenesis beginning to be delineated – albeit frustratingly slowly. The various biomarkers that have been explored thus far are discussed and Dr Zabron notes that, whilst progress is being made, it is still not possible to provide an early and definitive diagnosis of CC, to predict which patients with high-risk conditions will go on to develop the disease, nor to provide effective targeted therapy for any patient group.

In summing up, Dr Zabron states that the insidious and complex nature of CC continues to be a challenge, and there remains an immense need for new approaches and models to improve management of this insidious and devastating disease, and for talented researchers to take on this task.

To read the paper in full, click here

The remit for this basic science review was to raise research interest for scientists, clinical but also non-clinical, in cholangiocarcinoma work, by producing an overview of current molecular mechanistic knowledge, discussing what model systems (patient samples, animals, cells etc) are available, and highlighting the main gaps in knowledge.

March 2013