Cancers often release molecules into the bloodstream that pathologically alter the liver, shifting it to an inflammatory state, causing fat buildup and impairing its normal detoxifying functions, according to a study from investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. This discovery illuminates one of cancer’s more insidious survival mechanisms and suggests the possibility of new tests and drugs for detecting and reversing this process.
In the study, published May 24 in Nature, the researchers found that a wide variety of tumor types growing outside the liver remotely reprogram the liver to a state resembling fatty liver disease via secretion of extracellular vesicles and particles (EVPs) containing fatty acids. The scientists found evidence of this process in animal models of cancer and in the livers of human cancer patients.
“Our findings show that tumors can lead to significant systemic…
