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. 2017 Jun 30;3(4):241–251. doi: 10.2217/hep-2016-0012

Figure 3. . Differences in fatty acid metabolism in liver cancers.

Figure 3. 

HCC and ICC differ greatly in FA metabolic pathways, suggesting the need for fundamentally different therapeutic approaches. Unlike HCC and many other cancers, ICC depends strongly on uptake of exogenous FAs. Therefore, enhanced de novo FA synthesis with a concomitant inhibition of FA uptake is not a universal characteristic of liver neoplasm. Stratifying liver cancer patients based on whether FA uptake or de novo FA synthesis is the main driver of lipid metabolism in a given patient may be helpful for developing individualized therapies.

FA: Fatty acid; HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; ICC: Intrahepatic carcinoma.