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Topic: Natural Products and Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Beneficial and detrimental effects of natural dietary products

on the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma, and their roles in its

management

2
1
3
1
Rodolfo Sacco , Caterina Conte , Sara Marceglia , Valeria Mismas ,
1
1
Giampaolo Bresci , Antonio Romano , Roberto Eggenhoffner , Luca Giacomelli 4
4
1 Department of Gastroenterology, Cisanello University Hospital, 56127 Pisa, Italy.
2 Endocrinology and Metabolic Disease, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 00168 Rome, Italy.
3 Department of Engineering, University of Trieste, 34100 Trieste, Italy.
4 Department of Surgical Sciences and Integrated Diagnostics, School of Medicine, University of Genoa, 16163 Genoa, Italy.
ABSTRACT
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common solid malignancy and a leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide.
The mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis and development of HCC are complex and heterogeneous. Although mainly
related to hepatitis B and C chronic infection; HCC may also arise from diet-associated conditions such as non-alcoholic fatty
liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. Furthermore, toxins and nutrients such as mycotoxins and alcohol have an
established role in the pathogenesis of chronic liver diseases, whereas specific diet patterns or foods have been associated
with a reduction in HCC risk. The aim of this review is to provide a thorough overview of the clinically relevant effects - either
beneficial or detrimental - of natural products consumed by humans on HCC risk and management.

Key words: Hepatocellular carcinoma; natural products; diet; dietary supplements

Address for correspondence:
Dr. Rodolfo Sacco, Department of Gastroenterology, Cisanello University Hospital, 56127 Pisa, Italy.
E-mail: r.sacco@ao-pisa.toscana.it

Received: 10-11-2015, Accepted: 19-01-2016

INTRODUCTION contaminants are known to affect the risk of
developing HCC. Nutritional compounds that display
The risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects may have
associated with nutritional and metabolic factors, specific applications in preventing oxidative stress-
has been underestimated until recently. HCC may induced injury, which characterizes the pathogenesis
represent a late complication of non-alcoholic [3]
steatohepatitis-related cirrhosis, which in turn is of cirrhosis and steatosis. The pivotal role of diet is
[1]
strongly related to diet-associated conditions such as highlighted by the results of two large case-control
obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia.
[2]
Furthermore, several foods, beverages and food This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows
others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the
Access this article online author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
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http://www.hrjournal.net/
How to cite this article: Sacco R, Conte C, Marceglia S, Mismas
V, Bresci G, Romano A, Eggenhoffner R, Giacomelli L. Beneficial
DOI: and detrimental effects of natural dietary products on the risk of
10.20517/2394-5079.2015.64 hepatocellular carcinoma, and their role in its management. Hepatoma
Res 2016;2:53-61.

© 2016 Hepatoma Research | Published by OAE Publishing Inc. 53