Hormel Institute and Mayo Clinic scientists publish research on deadly form of liver cancer

A paper from researchers at the Hormel Institute and Mayo Clinic identifies potential new mechanisms of action in the treatment of Cholangiocarcinoma, a form of liver cancer. The findings were published in Cell Reports by Ningling Kang, PhD, Associate Professor and leader of the Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis lab at The Hormel Institute and Vijay Shah, MD, Carol M. Gatton Chairman of Medicine at Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Ningling Kang

Dr. Vijay Shah

Dr. Kang says the current first-line treatment for advanced cholangiocarcinoma is gemcitabine/cisplatin, but the median overall survival rate is less than twelve months, suggesting a critical need to better understand its mechanisms in order to develop new treatments.

Dr. Shah says the study team uncovered a previously unrecognized mechanism of action whereby hepatic stellate cells express PD-L1, in addition to cancer cells, and that the PD-L1 of hepatic stellate cells support cholangiocarcinoma growth.