Genetic Studies in Liver Cancer Patients

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one the most common malignancies in the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Since 1984, it has been the leading cause of cancer death in Taiwan. About 6000-8000 people died of this cancer every year in Taiwan. DNA microarray (DNA chip) is a very powerful tool to clarify the genetic changes in cancers. Expression profiling techniques have been used to simultaneously monitor the expression of thousands of genes from human tumor samples. It has been successfully used to predict clinical outcome and survival as well as classify different types of cancer. In this study, we will use the DNA chip to study the genetics in liver cancer patients.